Thread: Lokar Shifter Issues

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Well,
In between this boat project I decided to take Mr Blue out for a spin the other night. I showed up at the restaurant and went inside. One of my buddies said that someone wanted to hear my engine. So I went out, fired it up and the shifter fell into reverse!!!! (Renamed from Mr Blue to Christine) I quickly lunged for the stick and jammed it back into park, BUT not before it tapped the front bumper of a Mustang behind me!! After the smoke cleared with no damage to my vehicle and a small 2 inch line of my paint on their front bumper (Still cant find where the paint came from, NO damage to my car) I realized that I have had it with the Lokar shifter I installled when I built the car. Pops and I have adjusted and tightened that darn thing until we are blue in the face and yet it has never been right. It is tall (23 inch) and it has the large but light skull shift knob (the factory Lokar knob was heavier) but gosh it should be safer than this. Anyone else had a simular problem with their Lokar/ Considering changing to a Gennie. You thoughts out there?
Don Jr.

I would give Lokar a call and tell them what you have done before you give up and buy the Gennie. The Gennie, IMHO, has a flimsy mounting arrangement. Lokar does have some pretty good customer service - and may ask you to return it for repairs. I had one of their flex transmission sticks that dripped ATF - talked to them, they said there was a double o-ring mod and to send it back and they would do the fix - no questions, no receipt, no proof of age. NOT - they sent me a brand new one instead within a week with the fix done.

Couple of comments from me.

First, it seems that your neutral safety switch is not adjusted correctly. If it was you would only be able to crank the starter when in Park or Neutral. I had this same problem until I adjusted this switch.

Second, since you have used the adapter so that you can run the aftermarket skull shift knob; is the cable still functionable to allow you to have to push down on the shift knob in order to go from PARK to REVERSE. This is important with the Lokar shifter.

There is also a large nut at the shift lever pivot point, that when tightened up increases the friction against a plastic washer. This would then require additional force to be applied when moving the shift lever. It is to prevent the shift lever from just moving the linkage into another gear from vibration, bumps and its own weight. Tighter is better.

I have used both the Lokar and the Gennie shifters with long shift levers. The adjustments mentioned above are true for both brands. The Gennie shifter enables the use of many different shift knobs easily. Instead of having to push down on the knob to shift out of Park or into Low, the Gennie shifter must be moved to the side slightly and then up or down to the next position.

The Neutral switch adjustment is very critical to prevent startup in gear.

Good advise guys. Will try adjusting one more time to get proper safety switch engagement and if that fails will contact Lokar. Thanks for the advise! Don Jr.

After Don told me what happened I went to the shop the next night and with the engine off was able to take his shifter and pull it out of park without pushing down on the skull........it popped right into reverse. I pushed it back into park and it clicked as if locked in, and this time it held. I had to jiggle it though to get it locked into park, it didn't just click in automatically.

I think a couple of things are wrong here. First of all the adapter that allows you to use a different knob than Lokars has a very fine line of adjustment between not releasing the shifter and it coming out too easy. I remember when we first installed it two years ago that we had to play with it and to find the sweet spot where it would work properly. Secondly, we haven't really done any follow up adjusting on either of our cars since they went together two years ago, so in fairness we need to spend some time and tighten and adjust them properly.

I am having issues with the Lokar in my T also. If I am going down the road and hit certain bumps it drops from 3rd to 2nd. The first time it happened I was on the interstate and heard this engine roar.......I thought someone with louder headers than mine was passing me, but it was my own engine over revving. It has happened a few times since, so I have to get things tightened up. It also starts in gear SOMETIMES. Not always, so I guess the neutral switch is at least doing it's job part time. BTW, I don't have an overly heavy shift knob either.

One lesson I hope Don has learned is to NEVER start your car unless you are sitting behind the wheel with your foot on the brake. I can't say I haven't done the same thing, so I have learned a lesson here too. The one consolation is that Don's accident could have been so much worse. Megan, a young lady sometimes on this forum but usually on the HAMB, wrecked a very nice little T when she came off a hump on the interstate at about 70 mph and it downshifted (at least I remember that was the cause). Her car was totalled and luckily she survived but not without some serious injuries.

Don

I've got a 23"Lokar double bend ( Nostalgia ) shifter in my 29 and it did take some fine tuning to get it to react right. As said here the neutral saftey switch also needs to be adjusted, when I did mine I set it up so it will only start in park, not in neutral, everything from reverse on down is dead. I would also get a 16 inch emergency brake, (trans mount) from Lokar and install that, I put one in and it works great. It seems all this stuff needs to be tweaked a bit to get it to work, but whats new. I agree that Lokar makes a nice product and with a little screwing around you'll get it adjusted. The hand brake I had to grind a little off the bracket to get the release rod to move down so it would release, but like I said whats new!!!!:

OR - Something like this???

All Good advice. Thanks guys.
Don Jr

I've got the Lokar 12" single bend with the stock knob on my Willys. I've voiced my dislike for this shifter several times and spoken to the Lokar and Gennie guys at national meets a number of times. Their comments are along the line that the shifter is meant for streetcars and not real hot rods.

The problem is that for high performance use where you want to manually shift it, it is easy to over shift it. I've already done it a couple times so now when I want to "step on it" I start in 2nd and let the T350 up shift to what ever it wants to then hold my right hand against my leg and gently push the lever into 3rd when it is time. Not a very good thing. Also since I don't use a kick down, down shifting quickly is not a good thing to do. Fortunately I have a strong motor with lots of mid range and a very light car so just stepping on it is usually enough.

I also receved a modified shift plate from another reader which I have not installed yet. It has a much better way to positively select gears. I'm going to make a modified one of my own over the winter and install it. I already have a replacement shift plate from Lokar.

The bottom line is that we have made a mistake in application here and we really need to select a ratchet style cable shifter for our 'hotrods.' I know they don't look a cool but function and safety need to take priority here.

I have several friends with the long lever ones that have a real hard time when they step on it with the lever wanting to down shift. Not good. Personally I would not use one over 12" long at all. You will have to tighten the pivot up too tight to function very well.

Neither company shows much interest in fixing these other than to stress the neutral saftey switch adjustment.

I will say that mine was very easy to set up and the neutral safety switch works flawlessly.

I have my blower ready to install and I can see that it will be next to impossible to shift under full throttle. I'll probably just have to leave it in drive. A new ratchet shifter will be in order for sure.

i have replaced 3 genie shifter rods due to wear. the gate in the bottom actually saws a grove in the shifter that stops it from staying in the lock . after time there is no detent to lock into. not my favorite shifter . tall shifters are just a pia because they will do just what you describe. dont know if there is a solution to it .

I had a low end B&M cable shifter in my last car. I wasn't pretty but it had gates that held whatever gear, including park and neutral. The Lokar is pretty, but this car isn't a race car....and when it's all over, a B&M or similar cable shifter would have been easier to set up and do my interior around, but now water (and $$$) under the bridge......

Shine,

I recall you telling that warning before and put a wad of grease on the gate of my Gennie shifter, but I suppose driveline heat will quickly drain off the grease unless I can put some sort of bag around it. Were the shifter gates that you replaced "dry" or is lubrication useless?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Yup, I'm with Dave!!! Plan on sticking with a cable shifter that has a whole lot more positive lockouts!!! Friend of mine stopped by this afternoon, he's building a '28 roadster and WAS considering a Lokar shifter.... He went home to order his B&M..... Couple weeks ago a guy in Watertown was accelerating hard on an on ramp, got onto the interstate in drive hit a sizable bump, and the shifter dropped and fell back into 2nd!!! Didn't break anything but it could have jumped the other way just as easy and gone into reverse at a bit over 100 mph....real exciting!!!!!

In my own cars with the manuals, makes having one pop out of gear when decelerating seem kind of minor, I guess....

Sounds like Lokar might have given up function in favor of fashion?????

the gate did not wear out. the tip of the shift lever has a notch in it. after time the notch was cut deep enough to bypass the gate. they were pretty much dry. if i were to use one i would lube it and remember not to let it slide against the gate. i think it is after you go to reverse and then drive that the shift lever is riding on the gate.

Thanks Shine,
I had a chat with the tech guy at the Gennie site and he was pretty defensive saying there is nothing wrong with the Gennie design on two accounts:
1. He has had no problem with a Gennie shifter on a '32 roadster for over 120,000 miles.
2. Gennie is not Lokar!

However, I wanted to talk him into offering a flat "cup" to hold grease under the hardened steel gate plate but he was not interested even though that would just be a small accessory addition. The gate plate is curved to match the swing of the nose of the shifter so there is a natural dip in the plate that could pool some lubricant but some sort of cup is needed to keep the grease from running out through the slide slot. I have tried to cut out a "cup" from thin aluminum sheeting but it is not easy to fit in such a way that the grease will not just run out when hot. The only thing I learned, except for their unwillingness to offer an improvement, was that the detent spring-load can be adjusted from the jam nut on the right side. It would seem if the detent is set very tight that could increase wear on the nose of the shift handle tip but if the detent is too loose there is a chance of the position to slip; a clear tradeoff requiring some care in setting the tension.

Don, I was very sorry to learn that Meagen had a serious crash that may have been caused by a problem with a Lokar shifter. She was a delight on this Forum so I wish her well. If you have an address on the HAMB writeup I would like to read what happened first hand.

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder