Thread: Project $ 3 K Is Underway

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And this is a shift lever 1/2" thick with a 16" long "throw" from center of pivot to center of ball on top. The ball bushing has been press fitted into the hole in the shift lever. Now if we run a pivot pin thru the hole in the yellow ball, the shift lever can swing frontward and rearward like you would expect, but also side to side, as the yellow ball rotates inside the purple outer housing. This side to side movement is somewhat limited, because the yellow ball can only rotate untill the pivot bolt contacts the side of the purple outer housing.---Are you with me so far???

Yep. Starting to sink in.

Okay, we have two views of the same thing here, I have "exploded" the one view to give a better idea of how it goes together. The bronze coloured round part closest to the shift lever is made of bronze, and has a counterbore in the side facing the shift lever, just large enough to miss the yellow ball when assembled---it rides up against the side of the shift lever. The spring is large enough to fit over the smaller outside diameter of the bronze part. The second bronze coloured part is fitted into the other end of the spring. The dark blue brackets attach to the tranny, and the red pivot pin fits thru everything. When assembled, that spring is compressed enough to keep the shift lever very stable, with no "side to side" rock.---You will notice that the ends of the spring are ground flat, like a valve spring. On the side of the shift lever that does not have the spring, the yellow ball is fitting tight against the side of the blue bracket. Now you see that the shifter can be moved foreward and backward easily on the red pivot pin, and if you push (or pull) it sideways, it will actually "rock" on the yellow ball. I'm tired tonite, so will model the shift gate and locking pin tomorrow---I imagine that now the lights starting to come on---right???

Yep, it makes a lot of sense, and I was actually thinking of something similar early on, but what stopped me was that my shift arm can't be underneath like in the drawing. It has to come out the side on a shaft, like in the picture below. I couldn't quite figure out how to lock the shifter to the shaft, and still have it so I could move it sideways.

Here is what I mean about how the shaft has to come out the side.


Don

Don---thats an easy thing to do. ---I'll add it to the existing model and show you how.

Yeah, I know---but I've been doing this for 41 years now.

Yeah, that would work. I'm so deep into the one I've built that I am going to have to give the spring loaded pin a try when it comes. If it doesn't hold like I want, I may have to do some reengineering along the lines you have come up with.

Thanks for all the trouble you went to drafting this up. I'll bet a few rodders on here will be able to benefit from it.

Hey, so how is that Chevy coupe coming you guys were building?


Don

Hey Don,

Since the pictures of my shifter were part of the inspiration for yours, maybe you would like to take a better look. My shifter does basically what Brian is showing you, but is built a little differently. It moves back and forth, but also sideways and is spring-loaded so that it can fall into slots or cogs that hold it in gear. The pics in the gallery are too small to see much detail, but if you will e-mail me I will send them to you full-size so you can see them. They're too big to post here...

Sure. i'll send you my email address, but my stupid service seems to reject every other email to keep spam out. Send it, and I will then be able to tell my service it is ok to let you in.

Thanks for the offer.

Don

Originally Posted by cffisher

Don
Is the P/U baged??? How about a shot from the front. If I live long enough I'd realy like to build one of those.
Charlie

I was cleaning out some old pix in my computer tonight, and found this front shot of my Kids '29. It is essentially the same now, but just without a top.


Don

you could slot the shifter stalk the stalk would have a slip fit on a smalller tube the stalk would not be welded to the lever for the P R N . by a detents it would be spring loaded and push up in the detents by the load of the spring the stalk would have two slots vertical on he stalk this part would be pin to a smaller tube and pined so with out the spring pushing up there would be up and down this would be limted buy the length of the slots they would be mill in to the bottom part of the stalk and a pin on the side of the shifter or a striper bolt that would hit in the detents and all you would push down on the shifter pull it out of the detents . i have one more way i think that would work good but i think this would work great .the slip fit on the tube and the stalk would have to be good and would be in the shifter stalk the length would be longer than the slots the longer it is the less chance of back and forth slop you would want the pins to work the slots not right at the base this would help on the leverage point angle would work up against the smalller tub and not work the pins as hard. this could be whip rigth out if you have a mill and a lath or know some one that can do the small machine job for you

This is the last of it. The triangular shaped purple plate is the lock-out gate---it is 1/8" thick, and it is welded to the dark blue transmission bracket.---it does not move. The yellow pin in the absolute bottom of the shift lever is a hard press fit into the hole in the shifter lever, and extends out 1/8" on the side of the shift lever that is closest to teh lockout plate. It fits into the holes and/or slots in the lockout plate. This will only let the shift lever move if it is "tweaked" sideways, which rocks the lever to one side on the pivot ball and causes the yellow pin to disengage from the slot or hole in the lockplate.-----Of course, you have to do a lot of lay-out and trial and error fitting to ensure that the holes and slots in the lock-out plate correspond perfectly with the correct position of the lever going into the side of the transmission when it is in one of its "snapped into gear" positions.

I am not going to model the Lokar unit, as it does take a fair bit of time, and anyone who studies this type of lockout will see the point I have been trying to make. Aftermarket gearshifts are not cheap, but the lockout mechanism and the built in starter safety switch does, in my opinion make them worth the money that you spend on them.----I would be the last person to discourage "build it at home" innovation, but it reaches a point of diminishing returns. You can build a gearshift at home, but you will roll up a Hell of a lot of hours doing it. And at the end of the game, if you haven't been able to incorporate a lock-out gate and a starter safety switch into your design----well, that shift lever only has to get bumped into reverse once at 60 MPH or someone only has to reach in the door and turn the key to "start" position once when the car is setting in gear, and how much have you saved???? I love to design and build my own stuff, but sometimes it just makes more sense to run to the aftermarket.

Brian: The truest statement you have ever made was about the wisdom of buying a manufactured unit, like a Lokar or Gennie, rather than putzing around with this homemade one. When I look back on how many pages of this thread this one subject consumed, it is amazing. How can something so simple be so hard?

You have probably seen me give other rodders who are struggling with some issue the very same advice you just gave to me. "Quit messing around with it, bite the bullet and spend a couple of bucks to do it right." I should have just ordered the Gennie a couple of weeks ago and been done with it. My own Son and I had this little discussion at the shop one night, and that was his advice too. But I was trying to come in as close to the original $ 3 K figure as possible, and that meant building, rather than buying, most of the components. But in this particular case I admit I was being penny wise and pound foolish.

All of you, especially Brian, have expended a great deal of time and effort on what should have been a non-issue, and I thank each of you for that help. For now I am going to stop working on the shifter, and see what happens when the spring plunger arrives next week. I would like to salvage this shifter, because of the time I have in it (Yeah, I know that's just stupid and stubborn) and I may actually just order a Gennie in the final analysis. We will have to see.

But thanks again to everybody for all the help and suggestions. The info won't be wasted, as I am sure a lot of others will benefit from what we have been discussing. Today I am going to work on other areas of the T. I don't even want to see that stupid shifter for a while.


Thanks again guys for all you tried to do here. It helped a lot.


Don

Oh, Don!!!! You never get to old to make an error of judgement. I still do sometimes. Sometimes being able to say "I done it myself" takes a man down roads that are best left untravelled.----You are not alone!!!!