Has anyone ever installed one of these in a 49 50 or 51 merc. I have been having a bear of a time trying to get the linkages around the Overdrive soleniod. I have both the Hurst 3 speed shift kit and the one from mr gasket and neither has worked correctly because in both cases they are designed for transmissions without overdrive. I have one more thing to try before I put the car away for the winter. Any thoughts suggestions. I know it is doable and I think its gonna be fairly unique considering almost everyone is running automatics or the traditional three on the tree from my area.
Hope there is someone knowledgeable out there as we are contemplating the same thing in a 32 with a 50 merc motor and OD box.
flip the shift levers so they point up. i cut and rewelded mine until the angle was correct. i shortened the factory shift rods and attached them to a hurst three speed shifter. i had to modify the shifter mount to fit the overdrive unit. shift pattern will be, reverse up and left, first down and left, second up and right, third down and right.
Would soon get used to the reverse pattern. Looking forward but going back!! Did it make for a slightly harder to shift stick and make the gates seem closer? What did you do to take the slop out of the shift arms on the shafts?
not hard to shift and the gate is pretty standard. the shift arms into the case are pretty tight and the stock shift rods fit fairly well (once shortened) onto the hurst shifter. the stiffness of the shift is controlled by a nut and bolt that run through the shifter.
Ok after much frustration and hours of tinkering I got the mr gasket kit to work using the shift rods and brackets supplied. Lots of bending cutting the mounting brackets. All in all I probably had the kit in and out of the car 50 times before i got it to fit right. Problem i have now is the shift pattern for first and reverse seems to be reversed. First is up and Left, reverse is down and left. I about went through the outside of my garage when I let the clutch out. I dont know how it could be possible but that is how it is I am almost wondering if someone took the transmission apart and didnt put it back together correctly
otherwise it shifts through the gears rather well 3rd is a little sticky but all other gears seem fine.... Just happened to think of something about why the car would be shifting backward the brackets that connect to the transmission are being shifted from the bottom side and the arms are run below the over drive unit .... if I was to bend or make the linkages go above the overdrive and shift from the top side it should work correctly
ya'll prolly already know this, but back when 3spds ruled, all the shifter mfrs had a different part number for OD trans, or they just had a footnote indicating that their shifters would not work with those trannies. dj
+ Every aftermarket three speed floor shift conversion that I have ever seen or installed has the shift arms going up instead of down when you install the kit's arms on the side of the transmission. Just like on these instructions http://www.mr-gasket.com/pdf/7666_7667.pdf I think the simple way to do it would have been to build or modify the bracket so that the shifter was moved up or down just enough for the rods to clear the solenoid.
I agree with Heathen. I had a floor shifer in my 56 Ford in the 60's. I went through about 10 transmissions. I used a lot of the overdrive transmissions but would take the od and tailshaft off and use the tailshaft from a standard transmission. You could buy the OD's cheaper back then.
I am probably going to take the arms out and cut and weld them to go over the top of the overdrive unit. I am interested to see how the rods clear the floor pan, to be continued car is in the garage for the winter will dig back into it in the spring
i installed a mr gasket shifter on my 50 ford with OD i pointed the levers for the trans up toward the trans tunnel and bent the R/1 rod to where it went over the solenoid and down to the shifter i had to cut one of the "extra" rods that came with the shifter to extend the R/1 rod about 6inches or so the 2/3 rod only needed slight bending so it wouldnt bind on the R/1 rod it operates smoothly but i HATE the mr gasket shifter it doesnt have apositive neutral so im buying a hurst indy shifter
I did notice that the neutral is a little funky I have it so its gotta pretty seamless feel when it is in neutral I do not like the 2nd and third are where the transmission seems to default to, that is a tad on the frustrating side..... Good news is the shift kit only cost me 50 bucks some guy was selling it on ebay it was a new in box mr gasket price was right so I picked it up, I more then likely will get the Hurst Indy shifter before I complete the car
I know this is an old thread, but thought I'd show how I did it. Mr. Gasket #7666 universal (but lists 49 up Ford/Merc & others) shifter. Was cheap on ePay. I bought it because I like looks of the round shifter, as opposed to one made from flat stock (like a Hurst). It was for a different project (chopped 37 Chev PU), but I needed it for this one NOW. First, getting the pins out of the old arms sucked. Until I found out they are 1/4. Cut the heads off but couldn't drive them out, had to drill. Once I knew how big they were, it got easier. Had to torch a piece out of the left side of trans x-member for clearance, pic of that piece shown. Would have put a piece back in for strength, but I wanna drive this NOW. Maybe I'll do it later... Notice in the photo that I used the provided spacers on the left side bolts to space main bracket away from trans for OD clearance. There is a washer or 2 between the main part & the one that points up from the bottom. Flipped OD cable clamp to inside of lever for more clearance (thanks to my bro for that suggestion). Cut provided linkage bends off & threaded ends to add heims. Not needed, but it's what I had laying around. The stock linkage is 5/16, this is 3/8, so wouldn't fit into stock arms. For some stupid reason, I wanted to use the stock arms. Had to make bushings to use 5/16 bolts in the heims, so cut off some brake line tubing- perfect fit. Flipped shift arms & re-drilled holes so they pointed up. inserted 1/2 copper tubing into arms (where they go on trans) & mig welded the old holes shut. No cleaning up of welds in the arms that way, weld doesn't stick to copper! Put the longer arm on the front, instead of the back. That way, linkage clearance works much better. If you don't, you'll have to figure out how to cross the linkages over each other. Had to shorten the shift arms, 'cause the pattern was too long. 2nd was on the firewall & 3rd was on the seat. Look at the photo & you'll see my welds on those. I actually shortened the front one more, after the pic was taken. Should have used provided trans arms & wouldn't have had to do all that work to the stock ones, or cut the linkage either. But, you have to file a dip in the round shift actuators to use those. I also (seen in the pic) ground a slot in the bottom rear of the main bracket for 2 reasons: to not have the speedo cable bent at a severe angle, & to get it up and away from the bottom of the shift levers. It wasn't a direct bolt on like I wanted, but it wasn't terrible either. Maybe this kit has more suitable bracketry than others, maybe not. Just showing what worked for me.
Wow, how times have changed. "Back in the day" I went in to a discount department store in Las Vegas, I think it was called Vegas World and bought some Thorsen end wrenches (I still have them) and a conversion kit for my 56 Studebaker President W/OD... Took the inspection plate off the floorboard (Zeus fasteners?), mounted the kit, cut a hole for the shifter and was back in action in a matter of hours...I was 16 with NO mechanical experience. I don't remember what brand it was but I do remember the linkage rods were threaded not clamped to the arms, therefore they never slipped causing the transmission to lock in 2 gears.
I'm going to add to this old thread. I just built one for my 3 speed Overdrive. I built from scraps and used parts. that works perfect first and second problems were the shift forks. 2nd and 3rd gear lever sticks out further than 1-2 lever. but on the shifter 2-3 needs to be on the inside. and next the levers need to point up instead of down. the levers have non slip serations on the top only and didn't look like they would work for very long. I cut and reversed the off set on the levers instead off trying to cross the shift rods. I raised the shifter high enough to clear all the overdrive lumps and solinoids. it worked fine. but It didn't clear the floor and I didn't want an oversize hole. next I lowered the shifter to the level I wanted and made new shift rods out of scrap 3/8 round stock and made bends to clear everything. once again it works perfect.
My truck doesn't have a real theme and because the HAMB POLICE won't allow me to refer to it as a RAT ROD. I have to say it's a "50's custom shop truck." enough politics lol. I didn't like the appearence of the smooth shifting Hurst with a 7 inch throw from 2nd to 3rd so I cut the extended shift lever off my grannie geared 4 speed truck trans. added it to the chopped off hurst and now have a cool 27 inch throw from 2nd to 3rd
.....Wow that's some throw !!!hope the handle's not too bendy....if it is then the first speed shift to second may bust out your windshield...haha !
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