Hey everyone! I have an HD 57 Pontic transmission that will be going behind my nailhead. I don’t have the cash for a 37/8 buick top shift transmission so I’m wondering if anyone has pictures or details of any custom floor shifters. I found a thread from awhile ago but quite a few pictures were gone or pretty grainy. Pretty new here so any help would be appreciated! Thanks!
That "select-a-shift" transmission is similar in function to the Buick "sliding shift" unit. A shifter for that is super rare. The 6 bolt top unit is a little stronger than the 5 bolt, but still not super strong.
My '57 Pontiac is on it's 3rd selector transmission. It's not a great trans, it has a tall first gear, so choose your diff gears wisely. KK
Thanks for the input so far guys! Ballin on a pretty tight budget, plus I’m not planning on making a ton of power, so hopefully this trans will work out!
I made one for a '50 Buick I had in the mid-60's. It was pretty simple and worked well, The key was a couple of heim joints. The pattern was backwards (reverse was where third should be and third was where reverse usually lived). I liked it better that way because when you were in third, cruisin' down the highway, the floor shift lever was up towards the dash, away from the passengers. Although mine was for a Special with the "5-bolt" transmission, it would work the same with a transmission with a 6 bolt cover. BTW, I have heard that the "6-bolt" transmissions are quite rugged. One of the things that causes problems is the mickey-mouse shift linkage. If worse comes to worse and nobody else comes up with anything, I can make you a sketch and a rough list of materials.
Would that use a heim joint at the selector and one on top of the case? still trying to wrap my head around the movements inside the trans lol
The shaft at the bottom of the transmission slides laterally inside the transmission. Slide it in, and it shifts second and high. Slide it out, and it shifts low and reverse. Take the cover off of your transmission and it will become obvious how it works. The shift lever goes through the large heim mounted on a piece of angle iron bolted to the top cover bolts and is attached to the shaft with a smaller heim. When in neutral, push the lever to the right, and it slides the shaft out and allows you to select low or reverse. When in first, bring it back to neutral and pull the lever to the left and it slides the lever in so you can shift second and high. As simple as that. I kept my shift lever quite short so it was out of the way. I had thoughts of improving it (mainly by spring loading the lever to the second/high side), but never got around to it because it worked so well as is.
Ansen, Foxcraft, and Drag Fast made floor shift conversions for these transmissions, but none are easy to find today. The Drag Fast shifter used only the large shift arm on the transmission, and had a backwards pattern like Tubman's homemade conversion.
My buddy and I made floor shifts for our "53"Olds &"55" Olds in high school auto shop. There was an article in Car Craft on how the shifter worked. I think Ansen made the shifter. The Car Craft was from the late 50s early 60s.
I have a NOS Drag Fast conversion for sale currently. Unfortunately, it's for the 5 bolt cover Pontiac trans, not your HD 6 bolt cover. Zoom in on the installation instructions to see how the shifter for your transmission was set up.
Boy, the pictures in the Drag Fast instructions sure look a lot like the one I made. I'll bet the heim joint I used for the top pivot worked even better than what that shows. Same for the heim at the bottom. I don't think it doesn't matter that much whether it's for a 5-bolt or a 6-bolt. The only major difference is the mounting bracket, which would be easy to make. I used a piece of 2" X 2" angle mounted on the top bolts.
Correct, the only difference between the two Drag Fast models is the bracket. The rest of the parts are the same for both.
Thanks for posting! I think I can craft something up here, I have spent some more time observing the movements of the transmission as well. now its time to get out to the shop
If you do come up with something, please take a couple of picyures and post them here. I, for one, would like to see what you make.
Other aspects of the project got in the way of the shifter issue and I stumbled upon an incorrectly listed BOP Ansen shifter on eBay, so I scooped it up
The Jalopy Journal
