Hot Rods Gennie Shifter

Thanx it worked

 

Gerry,
You are welcome.
-Pat

 

I've had 2 Gennie shifters on the Turbo 350 in my 32 Ford. Both wore out the "lockout" feature for reverse and would allow you to shift to reverse without sliding the handle to the side. The result was that you could accidentally hit reverse at speed. They sent new parts for one 20 years ago but it failed within 5,000 miles. I'd stay away.

 

Don't know how the neutral safety switch could blow out the ignition module in the HEI, but it did, twice. As soon as I bypassed it, it quit happening. Here's a picture of the install. I don't have a picture of the shifter boot that I made for it, but it has one on there now.

 

Happened twice to you - is the problem with the shifter or the operator? Anything can be broken if someone is heavy-handed. My friend broke the reverse lockout mechanism on his Lokar. He drove it like that anyway and ended up tailsliding into the ditch after he hit reverse at speed.

 

Sorry but I don't think putting a car in reverse can be "Heavy Handed". They just plain failed. Nuff said.

 

Bringing this back from the dead to get new feedback. Leaning towards Gennie over Lokar but would like new feedback.

 

Mine (Gennie) is still working great after 3 years.

 

i have had a Gennie in my `28 Tudor for 20 years , installed a Lokar in my `30 coupe...i like the Gennie better

 

I havent driven my car yet, but I bought and installed one of Gennie's shifters. Install went pretty easy and it seems to work good. I like that they included 3 different length rods that go to the shifter arm on the trans. One was the exact length I needed. In the past I have bought shifters that just came with one cut-to-fit rod. I would definitely buy one again based on what I have seen so far.

 

Have had mine going since '87, and almost 40K miles.
Had to adjust once.......drat.

 

Have only one thing to say to Gennie........

 

Thanks for the feedback guys. Gotta say that Gennie has great customer service. Talked to Tim there for some help with setting up a used unit that I purchased, (C6) application to new brackets and hardware for my C4 trans. No issues that I wasn't buying a new unit from him and helped with all the stuff I needed to switch it over. Good folks.

 

15yrs now and still going strong with my 700. Neutral start needs to be adjusted or this could happen. Lesson learned

 

I am looking for some guidance / reassurance with a Gennie shifter and hoping someone can help please.

I have just bought a Gennie shifter to replace a Lokar that came with my car which has a C4 box. I didn't have a problem with the Lokar as such but I wanted a shorter stick and to change the knob. After reading what felt like many reviews I settled on changing to a Gennie. The lack of button and detent really appealed and I liked the look and use of real billiard ball knob options, which is what I wanted. And many great reviews that Gennie is the stick shifter to have.

However, now it's arrived I'm having concerns and feeling disappointed and confused. I should say the car is undergoing a major rebuild and is on stands with no seats so any testing is not being done in the usual seating position, but after initial fitting and despite much adjustment the mechanism feels very stiff and hard to be precise with gear selection through the detents. It certainly doesn't feel silky smooth or look as easy as the YouTube video of someone using a Gennie. It feels VERY knotchy and I'm worried how you stop flying through to the wrong gear and causing serious damage, or worse. I've spent hours going through the instructions and hours of internet searches with my long suffering good friend mechanic who I think would just like me to get a ratchet shifter to avoid going into the wrong selection, maybe something like a b&m quicksilver, but I prefer the look of the Gennie and I won't be racing but it is a fast street car and I do want to drive the car fast when I need to.

Anyway the next and subsequent worry is that I have a rear mount C4 shifter which attaches to the box using two bolts - the Lokar had a substantial frame. The fit of the stick to the the Lo-shift mechanism is by two grub screws that secure them and I'm worried what if any of these come loose with all the pulling and tugging the shifter in its current state might need. I don't want to end up with the thing coming off at speed.

I'd really like to stick with the Gennie and I'm going to message the company seperately but I wonder if anyone can provide help here? Maybe I'm doing something wrong or not doing something I should. The instrcutions feel somewhat vague.

And all this experience isn't helped as one of the main reasons I chose a Gennie was to change the knob but when it arrived I found the wrong knob was sent in the box, which though not a show stopper is a PIA particularly when I'm in the UK and have to ship via a proxy warehouse.

I'll happily post an update if I discover I've done something wrong with the fitting but so far I'm feeling disappointed.

 

I've had a Gennie shifter on a C4 in my roadster for 25 years, no problem, still works well. Hard to tell what's going on with yours, pictures might help.

This, I don't understand, you put it in drive and go. It's not a paddle shifter or some electronic thing. Or a racing shifter.

 

Thank You for sharing your experience with the rest of us.

I find I learn more everyday just reading many of the posts and threads on this site.
I may be 75 years old, but each day I learn something I did not know the day before.

The old saying "The reason God gave us two ears and one mouth was, so we could listen twice as much as we talk" is true.
Jimbo

 

Have a pic or 3!

 

Yes agree but when using 1st and 2nd it's more than just using Drive I think

 

And here's a cople of pics with Lokar.

 

Sorry it occurs to me I should get a pic of the Gennie with the linkage fitted. I will next time I'm with the car.

 

Mmm, I've never seen that mounting method. Looks feeble to me. Maybe things have changed, the company has had some changes of ownership and other issues in recent years. Things I'm not clued up on.

 

I can say I am not very happy right now with Gennie. I really hope I am doing something wrong. I fear I will end up putting the thing in the trash and buying a shorter stick and button adaptor for the Lokar which is what I wanted to avoid.

 

I have a Gennie Shifter on my C4. It’s been working really great since I got it on the road a couple years ago.

I combined the mounting hardware from the Lokar shifter and mounted the new Gennie shifter to it because I already had the Lokar mounted and the Lokar mounting brackets are much better and more substantial in strength overall than what Gennie does .

My goal was to rid of the Lokar because of the push button and get the gated action of the Gennie.

I then gutted the Lokar stick and made an adapter to mount it on the Gennie shifter.

Then I drilled out the Gennie shift knob and re threaded it to the Lokar’s 3/8-24 thread.
While I was at it I did the same thing to a special shift knob

So now I have a gated shifter and no annoying push button in the knob.

For the guys having problems with the neutral safety switches on these shifters the problem is in the setup and adjustment during the installation.

And don’t look for Lokar or Gennie to tell you how.
In conversations with the tech support at Lokar and with Gennie I came to the conclusion that they don’t have a clue on doing it correctly.
Their typical response is to tighten the switch into the shifter and install the wires.
If you do it that way don’t expect it to work and keep working.

I figured it out myself and made an interesting discovery that applies to both brand’s of these shifters.

If needed I can post a tech thread on how to do it.

Mine works as it should and will continue to.

I set up the Gennies neutral safety switch and found the perfect adjustment.
Power for starting in neutral and park only.
Setting up the switch I found that I had to make a .049 thick shim to get the adjustment perfect.

 

I have had both Gennie and Lokar early 80's versions and find the quality of the Gennie is very much better.

 

So are Gennie Shifters still available post Covid? I have a Lokar in my Morris woody (TH350) and would just love to get rid of it. I was even considering the old Mustang shifter.

 

I believe that they are.
Give them a call or drop them an email.
https://gennieshifter.com/

 

They certainly shipped me one thre or four weeks ago

 

Thanks, I’ll do that.

 

Hey, Blue One;
Sure, why not. Can always learn something new. Since I don't have either one of those, might help when I want one.


"I figured it out myself and made an interesting discovery that applies to both brand’s of these shifters.

If needed I can post a tech thread on how to do it.

Mine works as it should and will continue to.

I set up the Gennies neutral safety switch and found the perfect adjustment.
Power for starting in neutral and park only.
Setting up the switch I found that I had to make a .049 thick shim to get the adjustment perfect."

TIA.
Marcus...