Thread: Shift on Column

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Is it possible to convert the shift on the column to the floor without replacing the column?

its a 62 chevy C10 with 383 and TH 350

There should be a roll pin through the shift lever, knock it out and disconnect the linkage and you are ready to go. It does make for a rather ugly steering column though.

".... It does make for a rather ugly steering column though....."


You got that right

I've seen so many really beautiful cars over the years with the shift nub left on the column (especially 50's/60 era cars). All that work and they leave that little detail.

There are a few choices if it bugs you. Get a column from a floor shift truck and go through the hassel of changing it.

Spend a lot of money and buy and aftermarket column.

Or my favorite take a cut off wheel and cut the nub off, fill the hole with body filler, sand smooth and paint, which can all be done in car.

I don't know about Chevvies, but I used the shifter out of a '66 Mustang in a console I made in my '73 F100. The previous owner had butchered the steering column so I took the collar from a '66 Mustang and modified to fit the F100's column. Looks like it came from the factory that way.

I had a GM tilt column with a shifter on it. I am a pretty handy guy with all things mechanical, so I thought, I should be able to convert this column to no shifter. I took my time, made sketches and took digital pictures as I went along, and disassembled everything. By the time I had it torn apart enought to consider removeing the shift lever I had the biggest damn mess you ever seen, and threw the whole thing out.----My answer is NO unless you do like Mike P suggests and cut it off in the car and fill the hole with playdough.

So if I disconnected the the linkage and remove the roll pin, i could just cut if off and fill it in, sand, and paint?

Originally posted by brianrupnow
I had a GM tilt column with a shifter on it. I am a pretty handy guy with all things mechanical, so I thought, I should be able to convert this column to no shifter. I took my time, made sketches and took digital pictures as I went along, and disassembled everything. By the time I had it torn apart enought to consider removeing the shift lever I had the biggest damn mess you ever seen, and threw the whole thing out.----My answer is NO unless you do like Mike P suggests and cut it off in the car and fill the hole with playdough.

Brain I was just thinking, 30 yrs. ago while I was working at a caddy-olds. dealer I used to disassemble those steering column and rebuild them. It helped to have the proper tools though. I wouldn't go into one today for no amount of money.

Yes you can with that truck. It has a pin in there right next to the column and you pop it out. On my 66 F100 the pin wont come out and there is supposedly some way or no way (I haven't found anyone that knows) to get it out. Mine I just cut of with a sawzaw. Take all your linkage out from the column and buy a new shifter.

Here's what it looks like cut and filled before prime and paint.

here's another one that's already finished, used the same process as the first.

Originally posted by Bob Parmenter
here's another one that's already finished, used the same process as the first.

you do pretty work bob.

Originally posted by lt1s10
you do pretty work bob.

Kind words Mike, thank you.

Very nice work---Jeez, if I'd knew it was that easy I'da saved about a zillion dollars on an Ididit tilt unit.

I'll throw this one out for someone's future project.

When I built my 58 Chevy several years ago it had been a 3 on the tree car. As usual, I cut the nub and filled the hole. I built the car with TH350 and used a B&M floor shifter (the kind that looks like a 60's 4 speed shifter).

Instead of also cutting the 2 shift levers off flush at the bottom of the column, I only cut one, and left the one that was spring loaded and would cause the shift collar to rotate.

I welded a short lever to the shift arm on the transmission that would connect back to the shift column with one of the factory 3 spd shift rods. When the transmission was shifted with the floor shifter, the shift collar on the column would rotate. The 58's had an automatic trans shift indicator in the dash (which was filled with a blank on stick cars). I built a custom shift indicator panel (it showed PRND21 instead of PRNDGr), and then the transmission shifted the pointer on the collar would show the correct gear on the dash.