"3 on the tree" to "5 on the tree"

Muncie made the 4-speeds, Isuzu and Getrag made the 5-speeds.

It would make for a pretty bulky column, trying to shoehorn all that in there.

My 1952 Morris Oxford has 4 on the tree, pull the shifter out to find reverse.

Shawn

 

I had a 1985 toyota hiace was 5spd on the column,
action was good not bulky and I also have been thinking about doing the same thing with my 54 239 pontiac but the bellhousing seems to be a sticking point.would love to see some tech on this

 

Toyota Previa mini van has a column shift manual 5 speed. You could use the entire column with the sifter linkage and cables to get you were you wanted to be.

It shifted ok as well, provided that you did not rush the change across the box.

You will also find that some of the cab over toyota/datson pickups have a column shift.

Or what about a dash shift? look at the previous generation Honda Civic. Gear lever was right in the middle of the dash with a stubby little lever and that works really well.

What ever you do, avoid the linkage from the renaults though.....

Not sure if this helps or not but it sounds like a great idea for a cruiser, looking forward to seeing how you get on.

P.

 

Theory is one thing. Practicality is another.

If you had the 5 spd. trans that was designed to work with column shift linkage and if you had the donor car that had the column linkage that could be transplanted to the Pontiac then it might be reasonably possible. Difficult but possible. Lacking any of the above and you are just talking make believe fantasy. IMHO

If you want to use a T-5 with a Rube Goldberg shift linkage, save your effort and your money by trying something more practical and doable.

There are companies that make add on OD units for older cars. My guess is that they won't have one in stock for your application but might be able to build you one. It goes behind your current column shift trans. It won't be cheap but you'll have the OD and the tree on the tree. That is the only realistic way that I can see it ever happening.

I learned to drive with three on the tree and my current project is 3 spd. OD. I love the idea but as they used to say a few years ago....get real!

 

One thing to consider is the position of the ****** in relation to the floor. You didn't say what year the car is, but if it is a 49-54, and its like a Chevy, the T5 shifter box will be too close to the floor for you to be able to install anything to operate the shifter without a big ugly bulge in the floor. In other words, even if there is a way to colunm shift a 5spd, you may not physically have room to really make it work.
Considering how poor column shifters work in general, I would suggest putting your efforts into something else.

I'm not familiar with any of the above mentioned setups, but keep in mind that the T5 has a singular shift point on top, not multiple side levers like a Richmond 5spd would have.

 

Seriously this question has been the bain of my existence for the past 2 years!!!

I wanted a 5 spd behind my 235 in my 54 chev. but wanted to keep it on the tree...

I guess there is always t-bird buckets...

anyways,
I have found that the old borg warner overdrives are where it is at.

My fellow Iron Lord "******KNUCKLES" has a 3spd borg warner overdrive in his 51 plymouth and he is still running the inline flatty 6.

as it turns out you can use the over drive in every forward gear essentialy making a really slow shifting 6spd.

Those transmissions work great for highway speeds. He went from Charlotte N.C. to Vegas doing 80 to 85 the whole way with low rpms.

Also I have personal exp. with creating new shift linkage for 3 on the trees.

it ****s.

not saying it can't be done by any means,
but it ****s none the less...

just my 2cents.

 

What about an automatic overdrive like a 700R, use the column shift to operage a cable shift for the trans, and not engineer a complex, sloppy, and probably impossible to build manual column shift? There are adaptors to put these behind ANYTHING now, and it'd be nice to not be constanly rowing a 5spd.

I had a 50 Chev club coupe when I was a kid (that my Dad bought new) that had a column shift, and it was constanly hanging up. What a pain.

 

I think relevant info is required. What engine are we talking about? What kind of car? Are we talking about the mentioned 51 Poncho in your profile, presumably equipped with the flathead straight 8? I honestly don't see how any of this could work, aside from some solenoid actuated system where your column shifter is a trigger controlling remote electronic shifting on the transmission itself. If stock appearance is your end game, then cramming gates and levers into a skinny steering column will not appear stock at all. In fact a floor shifter would look more at home. All is not lost though. You could run a later GM 3 speed like a 57 Chevy, with a factory overdrive unit. You'd retain the stock column shift and still have the OD. You could also convert to a modern 700R4 auto. You can convert the column shifter to cable (Lokar sells a kit) and use it to shift the trans, and just leave your clutch in place. Nobody would be the wiser. With the T5 though, the beauty of those transmissions are that the shifter is so directly connected to the shift forks, they are very precise and positive feeling through the gears. A Rube Goldberg mechanism to shift negate the benefits of reliability and ease of install.

I know you're a mechanical engineer and your natural inclination is to not do things the easy way when you can do them the really hard way. Please fight this urge

 

OK so 5spd column shift may not be practicable,
Does anybody have tech/info for O/D conversions.(OEM)
What O/Ds fit what gearboxes, can they fit existing 3spd pontiac (or BOP for that matter regarding interchangability) where to get one and an approximate weight/cost, parts availability.
One more dumb*** question: do you need to pull the flywheel out to get the bellhousing off?
Sorry for the hijack
Clint

 

unclechop - There's 6 bolts holding the bellhousing on - 4 can't be reached without removing the flywheel (on my Poncho anyways).

And yes- anyone out there have more info of these O/D units ????

 

Here is one after market supplier.

I believe there are others. Someone makes one that goes into the torque tube for flathead Fords. You'd have to save a lot of gas to recoup your initial investment.

The good ole T-5 have been put behind almost anything that has pistons but of course you will have a floor shifter. When I first started we paid good money for floor shifters to get it off of the column. Now it's fun to shift on the tree again.