The rat fink shift rod

[lazarat]

I have this short "Hurst turbomatic shifter". Great for running the Turbo 400 through the gears, but a bitch to get into reverse and park with the lockout. I also wanted to have the long shifter for that big daddy ratfink look.

Being a make do with what I got kinda guy, (shade tree engineering), I found a hunk of threaded rod, went and got a coupling for it, removed the knob and screwed it all together, then wrapped it in electrical tape so it would'nt look like...threaded rod! Wala! Good fit, up high....but!

The Knob of the turboshifter was quite heavy, the thing seemed to want to drop into gear on its own. So I ran down to Oreilly and picked up, no....not the green or cream colored skull knob, but the old school styled 8 ball shifter knob.

Much lighter, now have the shifter up just past window level, no longer a struggle to get into park/reverse. I can still run through the gears, but I hit the rod much lower and barely have to knock it to shift. I don't drive the car that way too much anyway, with the vac modulator dialed out for the later shifting when jumping on it, and the shift kit assist, it does quite well.

Thats my story and I am sticking with it, I write this nonsense while sipping my first cup of coffee. pics:

[smallfoot]

There ya go...

[Old Iron]

That's the way it goes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Torchie]

Torchie

[bob w]

Good on ya.

[sgtpontiac]

See...not everything is bad when you're behind the 8 ball...

[soltz]

Improvise Adapt and Overcome