1951 oldsmobile selector trans shifter

A close friend of mine and I are trying to adapt his 1951 olds selector trans to a floor shift. We have a few ideas, but I am not completely confident in how it works. I have heard that the small arm is not needed in a floor conversion only the big arm. Can anyone confirm this?

Also, I am wondering how the selctor arm works I would assume to pull the sector out it goes to the 2/3 gate so then a shifter would have to be pushed right and up down, push the sector in shifter left is 1/R. Can someone confirm this as well please.

Also, if anyone has pictures of after market selector shifters they could post it would be greatly appreciated, as they are rare, and not produced I would like to build one and would like to use the pics to see if I am on the right track.

 

I have a tech article in one of my old little books (pre Janet) when they used to build parts instead of sell ads. I'll see if I can find it. I need to do one too.

 

you could use 2 shifters, one tall and one shorter, or maybe a solenoid

 

some in this thread:
Rocket Olds Swap Meet Holy Grail

 

NONAME, that would be great thanks!

Paul, that is actually one of the threads I was reading, I am trying to wrap my head around how exactly the shifters work......

Thanks for your input!

 

The small arm is the rail selector. Selects first / reverse or second / third. The big arm is the gear selector. "Back in the Day" the only company I knew that made a floor shift setup for that type of transmission was Ansen. I installecd one on a Buick and it didn't fit well as I had to fabricate a bracket to install it. That said, it didn't work that well either. Threw the whole thing in the garbage and installed a 37 Buick transmission which was a true floor shifter. Those Ansen shifters were rare at the time and chances of finding one now would be slim or none. The pictures Paul has of the "one armed bandit" shifter , if my memory is correct is something other then the Ansen unit. The Ansen unit I believe had a connection to the rail selector. Hard to remember something from 45 years ago.

 

I'll dig out my Ansen selector shifter and take some pix of it.

 

Enjoyed this thread and all the attendant photos. Brought back memories of trying to sort out homemade shifters for these dang things. Recollection is that I bought a Fenton floorshift which worked just fine. When in doubt...bring the wallet out.
Thanks for the expert input from you guys. I'm in awe of the experience, knowledge, and skill level within the pages of this forum.

dj

 

Heathen, if you have an Ansen shifter for one of these "one arm bandits" you can name your price. Can't tell you how many times I've seen people looking for them.

 

Thank you Heathen! I am confident I can build one with some good detailed pictures of what you have, I am really excited to do this!

 

Any interest in trying to share info on this thread? I can put up some pics later of a Selector case without the upper shafts so you can see how the small and large levers work.


I think we could come up with a floor shifter that has a normal pattern, by using pics of one of the homemade shifters on the other thread...and by getting some input here on how to beef it up.

 

excellent! Thank you F&J precisely why I am here, to learn and share information.

 

I had a '50 Buick with a stick. I think it's about the same as an Olds. What I did was get two Heim joints (a little one for the bottom and a 1/2" onr for the top). I bolted a piece of angle iron that ran parallel to the mainshaft on the top of the trans with a big hole in it so I could bolt the big Heim joint to it. I got a piece of 1/2 round stock (I think; this was a long time ago) and drilled and tapped a hole for the small Heim joint in the end of the rod which was then attached to the end of the arm on the larger shift levers. The rod ran up through the large Heim joint on the angle iron. I welded a tapered shift lever on the top of the 1/2" rod about 2 inches above the big heim joint. When the transmission was in neutral, you could shift between first/Reverse and 2nd 3rd by moving the lever sideways. When you moved to the side you wanted, just push it fore and aft to select the gear you needed. As I remember, the shift pattern ended up backwards, but it didn't bother me. As long as you remembered to push it all the way to the side you wanted to shift, it worked great. I used it for several years and then sold the car. This was in the late '60's and the Heim joints were kind of expensive ($15 or so for the two), but it worked for me.

 

Here is a start. Pics are huge, so keep expanding them.

Inside pic shows how the shift rails work. If you really look close to where the smaller shift lever area is, towards the driver side front, you can see how the small lever helps to move the cross rail from side to side.

2nd pic shows the shift pattern, and also shows a different year/make of a selector lever with more offset and a smaller linkage hole. I am showing it clamped on the way it would sit if you rotated the arm 180 degrees to get the pattern right. The shaft has only 2 ways the arm can be "clocked". This pic shows the trans in 2nd gear, and you can see that the angle is not good for a shifter with a horizontal shifter rod like all side shifters have. So, you'd need to cut the arm and rotate it so it will point straight up in neutral.

I'll do another post soon on some basic ideas.

 

From the other thread pics..

Here is a pic of what I think is a Dragmaster shifter and it appears to be somewhat like Tubman built. This one would have a backwards pattern, also.

 

This homemade shifter that some hamber found and bought, looks to be one way to get a normal shift pattern. It is on a different type of selector trans but if the side arm was facing up straight in neutral, then this shifter would have a normal H pattern from what I see.

rev ---- 2
1st------3

note the coil spring on the right side of the homemade cross shaft on the top of the trans. That spring would make it feel like a real shifter that has spring tension when you are in neutral, and then move the handle to the 1st/ rev gate. Pretty clever.

Also note the heavy duty dual clevis link from the shifter to the selector arm. They tried to eliminate any side slop in the clevis, so it would have fairly tight side to side movement in the neutral gate.

You could also build the cross shaft further back and a bit lower for whatever your floor is.

If you read up on hamb, most guys said whatever shifter is used, a selector will never be fast shifting between gates.

 

Hey everybody. I'm the close friend. Can you believe this Hotflint guy ? Spending all his time trying to figure out how to make my shifter work ? What a guy !!

 

I made a floor shifter for my ’56 Olds (in about 1960) that was spring loaded ‘up’ for 1<SUP>st</SUP> and reverse, then pushed down for 2<SUP>nd</SUP> and 3<SUP>rd</SUP>.
So 1<SUP>st</SUP> was up and back, shift to 2<SUP>nd</SUP> was down and forward, shift to 3<SUP>rd</SUP> was down and back or just straight back.
Pretty simple, worked great, and looked good too. Used to have a drawing I made, but can’t find it now. I suppose I could make a sketch…

 

Thanks F&J thats a huge help!

0rg0-----> Just trying to help ya because you are awesome!

 

A sketch would be good if you can.


I might try working on a prototype shifter today, just to see if I can get a normal pattern.

 

F&J you are the man! Funny this is what I PM you about last month! I would love to make this Buick I have a floor shift!
CHUCK

 

Just don't expect to be doing any speed shifts with one of these set ups.

 

You need to get under the car to see if it looks like the 6 bolt trans I am working on, or if it is the smaller one like in the pics of that homemade shifter.

I have no idea if all the 50s GM cars used only the bigger trans case. Maybe someone here can answer that.

Anyways, I did work on a shifter this afternoon. I was trying to see if that homemade setup would work well if you pushed the shifter sideways for the two gates. I thought it might be a problem because it looks like someone put 2 drilled oil holes on the top cross shaft bushings to make it slide better?

I got mine together with a 24" oversize stick, and it will not move over good enough unless you hold the shift handle about 1 foot up from the trans. So, it can work with a short shifter, but that's not what anyone would want. The stick I made straight, but can be bent to fit each car.

I thought about what Owen just posted about making the shifter move up or down for the gates, and I then thought about a T trigger under the shift knob to do the gate movement. I kind of thought that would look bad, so I quit for the day.

I later had a brainstorm on how to make my shifter work as nice as a Hurst 3 speed stick. I will do the modification maybe tomorrow and let you know if it does work like I hope.

Right now, my shifter moves 7" going from 2 to 3, or from Rev to 1st., maybe that's too short of a throw for most people?..I can easily change it to go more. ...and yes, it does have the normal H pattern, not backwards.

R 2
1 3

I am wondering about floor pan clearance on my design. I don't know anyone around here that has a stock body 50s GM car to look at.

Here's a crummy pic:

 

Heres sort of what I was thinking, I had time to sit down and draw it out now that I have learned a few things from you guys.....

 

the top picture is from the back of the transmission. The two heim joints at the bottom of the assembly are bolted through a carrier which is bolted through the bolts of the top cover. there is a shaft going through the heim joints with a piece of keystock welded to it and at the top small pieces of pipe with brass bushings allowing the assembly to rock back and forth. through the brass bushings is a shaft and on the left side is an arm welded to the shaft. between the top and bottom shafts is the shifter. the bottom and top shaft are connected with a flat bar and a fastner going through it to the shaft, and welded on top is the shifter allowing the top shaft to move side to side. when the assembly is pushed forward the arm should go forward which is coupled to the shifter arm. as shown in the bottom drawing.

 

I just looked at the top drawing and realized that the link between the bottom and top shaft will have to be capable of lengthening and shortening because of the swing arc created in the side to side movement. Hopefully this would take care of it, of course it could be made simpler than what I am thinking but, I am also a machinist/millwright by trade so.........

 

When at auto body school I traded a Chevy 4-barrel manifold and carb for a shifter on my 49 Olds bubble top coupe. I don't remember the make and my buddy installed it in the deal, the most I remember was the cool tall shifter I had on it. ~Sololobo~

 

I'll take some pix of a shifter I've been working on as a conversion for use on a selector transmission along with the Ansen shifter. The smaller Buicks used the five bolt top cover transmission in the '50s, as did '55 Pontiacs.

 

hotflint, It took me a few minutes to figure out what is moving where, on your first drawing...but I do get it now.

That design of the side to side "gate" movement looks great.

If you can take a look under the car to see how much floorpan/tunnel room there is,,,before you get too far in machining the top parts?


The smaller drawing of the side shift lever; I think you need to point the arm down to get a normal pattern?

 

F&J - You are correct; except for a more sophisticated bracket on the trans, that looks almost exactly like what I made.