this is a warning to all you tall shifter guys. I have a 28" Genie shifter in my roadster. Last night I was cruising down a back road to my budies house doing about 50 mph. A pretty good sized bump in the road caused my shifter to jump from drive to first. Back tires lock and I go into oncoming traffic. Luckily I over corrected back into my lane and down into the ditch. Smashed in the oil pan on my hemi, tranny pan on the th-350 , bottom radiator tank, and scarred up my fresh powder coated front axle and hairpins. The weight of the shifter and shift knob averpowers the ratchet mechanism and doesnt hold it in gear on a rough road. I'm headed to the garage where I'm gonna chuck that pos in the chop saw.
Usually a bump hit at speed would make your shifter bump forward, not backwards (drive to neutral, or worse, park/reverse). I've had that happen, but not move rearward before.
I had that happen with a short handle shifter many years ago...it was a real pos shifter, no detents, hit a bump going under a freeway and it jumped into reverse. fun! I had that thing out of there in a few days replaced with a real shifter.
OUCH! That's why I run with this: It ain't old school but it won't break and it won't go in the wrong gear by accident. ever.
I had almost the exact same thing happen the very first time I got my Model A out, 'cept it went into park, not first. Not cool... -Abone.
Try replacing the bowling ball shiftknob with something a little bit smaller...maybe a brick or your old broken toaster.
um...stock knob assjack. it weighs all of 2 ounces. I had buddy come by today and look at it. He built the shifters for Genie for a few years. Everything is as it should be. I think I'll go with a ratchet style with reverse lockout.
HMMMMM, STRANGE ! I HAVE HAD A TALL SHIFTER IN MY PONTIAC POWERED '55 F~100 FOR OVER 10 YEARS AND NEVER HAD THIS PROBLEM. DO~NUTS AND 3rd GEAR SLIDES AT EL MIRAGE, WONDERFULL 405 FREEWAY IN SUNNY SO. CAL., DIRT ROADS OUTSIDE OF PASO ROBLES, STOP LIGHT RACING IN SAN LEANDRO CA., HAULIN ASS FROM BAKERSFIELD TO WEED CA. ON THE OLD ROADS, DESERT ROADS IN ARIZONA. BUT THEN AGAIN, I DONT HAVE A DAMN AUTOMATIC REAL HOT RODS HAVE 3 PEDALS
Eight years with my gennie....and I made a LONG shifter for it....occasionally it would bounce forward into neutral...never downshifted though....and I'm pretty sure a ratchet shifter comes with an assjack. Next time I'll use a smiley face, I was just jokin around, lighten up.
Same thing I thought. The gennie is nice because you can use any knob, but it really should have detents like the lokar uses.
had somethin' like that happen once in the '51 ford while headed up 71 to Kansas City, just moving along with the flow of traffic at around 75-80 when my g/f decides she's gonna get something outta the back seat...her ass somehow made the shifter drop into low...almost like it reached out and grabbed it..scary. I found out that a 289 can handle quite a few rpms, and that a blonde mountain girl can move pretty fast when she thinks she's about to die in a car crash, wish I'd had a camera because the look on her face was priceless. Shouldn't a quality piece, or one costing as much as yours did, have some sort of latching/ratchet mechanism that works as it's supposed to? Might be worth discussing with the company selling them.
This kind of topic comes up every so often. Someone has a problem with a part - tell severyone as a "beware it could happen to you" type post (which I take as a Public Service - good thing) then the parade of people who want to dismiss the issue. 2 or 3 feet of leverage should not be ignorred. Go ahead (and ignore it) and maybe the next public service post will be from you. I say take it for what it's worth - IF you run a LONG shifter - you might want to re-evaluate it. Then go ahead and do the manly thing and thank the guy for sharing his story. Taking shots at him is sorta like kickin' a fella when he's down. Yeah it might be in good humor, but it's in poor taste. Ichoptop, thanks for sharing - I hope you get it all worked out asap.
if anyone thinks my reply was a shot at them, I apologize. What I was trying to say is that a part you spend that much money for should work as intended and not jump outta gear...that's dangerous... and yeah, I hope ichoptop gets it worked out soon too, no fun when issues like that come up.
Ichoptop,I had this exact thing happen at about 75 mph. I have a really tall shifter also. It takes your breath away. I thought it was over but managed to save it. Sorry to hear your car was hurt, glad it wasn't you.Chuck
I went back and forth between getting a Gennie or a Lokar for my current build. I like the safety features on the Lokar and plan to order one this week. Now I just have to decide if I want the floor mount or tranny mount style.
BTW - This might be a little off topic, but I am running a "tall shifter" in my dragster. It's not a store bought unit (so any blame on function lies with me) anyways after reading posts LIKE THESE it made me reconsider the design. I really wanted to keep it long (not for looks but because the design allows the shifter to become a hand brake depending on which trans I run - the shifter is a shifter when you run an automatic - when set up for a clutch the brake pedal becomes the clutch pedal and the shifter becomes the hand brake - sorry I digress.... Point is I took those previous posts to heart when I designed mine. I added in an adjustable friction element to allow the shifter's weight to be at least partially removed from the equation. I also added a bit of friction to the shifter "up high" where it'd be most effective. Then I tried to minimize the mass (by drilling holes of course) to further minimize the effects of the length of the shifter. Will it survive tire shake?? I'll let you know. Bottom line - these are good posts - lets all learn from them. And for all those "3 pedal hot rod guys" - my ride only has room for 2 pedals (of course it can run a clutch or auto) - not a hot rod?? Not likely.
Who decided that "tall shifters" were cool anyway? Was it Ed Roth when he drew the Rat Fink and a bunch of other weirdo characters sticking out of the top of the car, with a death-grip on the shifter and a crazed look in their eyes?
Depends on the angle of the lever,which influences the location of the center of gravity relative to the pivot. If a heavy shift knob is behind the pivot, it will want to move to the rear. Simple physics.
I don't know how these shifters work, never seen the inside of one (I don't own anything with a automatic) If they use a detent ball or something similar to lock in gear you might be able to put a stiffer spring in the detent mechanism to hold the shifter tighter. If that doesn't work, perhaps you could add a washer or two to the pivot bolt assembly and tighten it up so it works like a friction lock does on aircraft throttles. Just my 0.02, trying to be constructive. Shawn
I'll just make a simple statement. We're not hearing ALL of the story. Don't care what your buddy who assembled Gennie shifters said, something is missing. Frank
Damn, chop, sorry to read this post. If it makes ya feel any better - misery loving company and all - this shifter (and slow reflexes) cost me my motor. This is a ratchet shifter for a mullet camaro/mustang with the handle unbolted and a tab welded on my truck's original shift lever to adapt it on. Thought it'd be pretty cool; fit just right, huh? Well, it fit perfectly, but the problem is that the truck has a reverse-pattern valve body. On acceleration, the handle stays back, and doesn't snap forward so it can grab the next notch on the pawl. So, when I went to slap it back to go up a gear, it wouldn't move. I smacked it a couple more times. By the time I thought "I should lift..." I heard that 'hydroplane' noise of valves floating. Then the car wouldn't idle well. And was real hard to crank. Bent valves and spun rod. Fuck! Oh well, it's only money - they'll print more. -bill
I would never buy anything but a Lokar after a guy from Omaha with a nice red Model A pickup told me he reached in to get something when it was running in Park, and knocked it into gear. The truck (and small trailer) almost ran him over, and by the time he chased it down, it went through a wood fence in his yard. No major damage but it could have been much worse.
I'm wondering if the floor mount would vibrate less than the tranny mount. My sons shoebox has a Lokar and my Merc has a Gennie. I bought a Lokar for my Merc,cause I like the lockout function. My gennie has popped out of gear many times,just by bumping it. Lokar won't pop out without pressing the button.
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