Make your own automatic shifter

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hillbilly4008

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 7, 2008
Messages
598
Location
Upstate NY
This is continued from the "custom shifter knob" thread located in photos section.

lets just pick up where we left off shall we.;)

I'll get picks and post them later today.
 
sorry it took me so long to get these pics. These are the best pics i could get with out tearing it all down.

ps. maybe someone could post "quotes" on this thread from the "shifter knob" thread. I would, but i dont know how to insert quotes from different threads.

Joe
 

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Now see.. This is why I like this place. There is always a way to get it done without spending a ton of money. The whole thing with hot rods was to fabricate something from nothing. They werent parts installers....
 
I really hope you going to incorporate some sort of lock-out into that mechanism. DO NOT rely on the transmission detent to hold it gear! The slightest bump can knock it out, and the cosequences WILL be disastrous. Imagine doing highway speed and jamming your vehicle into park or reverse. It will happen, and it is only a matter of time until it does. Best case - you do serious damage to your driveline/vehicle. Worst case - you kill yourself or someone else. For everyone on the road's sake put a SAFE shifter on that thing...
 
I had to fab up some sort of shifter for my 39 Dodge truck. It has an Olds 394 and a 59 hydomatic, and no one makes a shifter for that one. I first made one that used a 39 Ford lever, but it was too flimsy, so I remade it using an old Hurst stick I had laying around.

It is utter simplicity and has no detents because the ones in the transmission are very firm. I think it will be ok once it gets welded to the frame and tweaked a little. Here are a couple of shots of it.

Don

dansframefinallydone001.jpg


dansframefinallydone002.jpg
 
Hey Don, I know you are an experienced builder and this is no way a jab at you, or the other fella for that matter. Your setup looks nice, but it still gives me the heebie-jeebies. I had the unfortunate experience of being in a vehicle that had a shifter with no locking detent when it jumped into park at around 50mph. Wound up facing the wrong way in the ditch on the other side of the road. Luckily other than some soiled undergarments we were both ok, but we were just that - lucky! I know of at least two other similar incidents involving people I actually know and sub-par automatic shifter setups. For that reason I am a big stickler on this one. Looks like you could possibly adapt one onto the tailshaft maybe? I am the last one to call in the safety police, but just lookin' out for you fellas! :)
 
Yes Lord... I remember watching a 69 Camaro flip about 9 times at the end of the quarter once when the driver, Johny Ruth, flipped the shifter up into what he thought was nuetral. It wasnt.... Yes to some sort of lock out. This is a great thread


This is from the thread this thread started from. Hillbilly4008 wrote it:

Do you know what a "shift slot" is? I tried my best to find a picture for ya, no luck. They use them on Older automatic John Deere farm tractors, riding lawn mowers, and self propelled snowblowers with automatic transmissions. Its the shifter that some lawn tractors have on the fender. It uses slots to hold the shift lever in gear, to shift through the gears you pull the lever to the side then push forward and back.

You could also check the local u-pull-it yard for cars with floor shifters. I know that '80s automatic trans ams and camaros used slot shifters. Those work off of a button on the shifter knob. Push the button and it releases the lock that sits in a groove between P-R- and the forward gears.

Hope this helps[/QUOTE]
 
Hey Don, I know you are an experienced builder and this is no way a jab at you, or the other fella for that matter. Your setup looks nice, but it still gives me the heebie-jeebies. I had the unfortunate experience of being in a vehicle that had a shifter with no locking detent when it jumped into park at around 50mph. Wound up facing the wrong way in the ditch on the other side of the road. Luckily other than some soiled undergarments we were both ok, but we were just that - lucky! I know of at least two other similar incidents involving people I actually know and sub-par automatic shifter setups. For that reason I am a big stickler on this one. Looks like you could possibly adapt one onto the tailshaft maybe? I am the last one to call in the safety police, but just lookin' out for you fellas! :)


I know exactly what you are saying, even my Lokar dropped down into 2nd on hard bumps going to Daytona this year. I have to adjust it tighter. But this shifter actually clicks into each gear very solidly, and the handle is short and pretty tight to the mount. I may add a detent button I bought a while back for another project. It is a spring loaded BB affair that I can locate into some drilled depressions in the plate.

However, many years ago I built a Bugeye Sprite with a 289 Ford in it and made a similar shifter for it. Never missed a gear, and the car was pretty violent when my foot was in it. I'll have to see how this one works out and modify it as needed.

Don
 
Now I would love to see a ton of pictures and write up about this shifter. I have a Lokar with a 23" shifter arm on it. It looks cool but I have always thought that I might have to pay for the cool go give up the precision..
Pictures...
 
TTT I am also looking into auto floor shifter options. Lokar makes a nice one. But it seems a simple home made one would be fairly easy to make. But I agree on the safety. I don't want to save a few hundred dollars just to end up dead on the highway. It might work 1000 times, it only needs to fail once. It would be to easy to accidentally get pushed, knocked, wiggled out of the proper position.
 
i ended up using my parking brake lever as a shifter. Ya know the kind that you squeeze to release. With mine you squeeze the handle to go back down in gears, that way you dont accidentally hit R or P if i nudge it the wrong way with my knee. Works pretty good, cept the shift pattern is backwards
1-2-3-N-R-P ya get use to it
 
I have been working on one too, need it to click and lock in each gear and lock in park ... I think I can get it to work 1 day maybe
 
i ended up using my parking brake lever as a shifter. Ya know the kind that you squeeze to release. With mine you squeeze the handle to go back down in gears, that way you dont accidentally hit R or P if i nudge it the wrong way with my knee. Works pretty good, cept the shift pattern is backwards
1-2-3-N-R-P ya get use to it


Good idea....would work as an anti theft devise as well. Confuse the ****e out of them......
 
Here's one I made using a NOS 60's or 70's shifter I found in an old speed shop stockplie - the shifter body has built in detents that require pulling it to one side then moving it so it won't accidentally get shoved into park or reverse. Paid $10 for the shifter, made my own mount and linkage and used a 58 Chev truck shifter handle.
 

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i ended up using my parking brake lever as a shifter. Ya know the kind that you squeeze to release. With mine you squeeze the handle to go back down in gears, that way you dont accidentally hit R or P if i nudge it the wrong way with my knee. Works pretty good, cept the shift pattern is backwards
1-2-3-N-R-P ya get use to it

man i thought i would be the first to build one.

but if you want to reverse the shift pattern, flip you transmission lever to the other side. like, if you have it hanging down, put it on the top side. problem fixed
 

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