I have shortened my -48 Chevy stock column and hooked up the shifter arm to work with my 700r transmission. It all works smoothly but I would like to like the shift points to be more precise and not just rely on the transmission to stay in the gear selected. It would also be great if I could have it locked in the park position. I have looked at the Limeworks solution but with the shifter shaft inside a tube it would not work for my application. Any suggestions?
I don’t have any suggestions for you but I’ve driven 2 cars with the same setup for years without any problems.
That’s how my pickup is set up. I won’t drive mine until I fix it, so it is parked until the project reaches the top of the pile. It’s dangerous. Really needs a rooster tail to make positive detents, or maybe even an aftermarket floor shift until you figure something out.
Make a detent plate that mounts to the shift shaft at the firewall. Then make a spring loaded plunger to fall into the detents for the different gears mounted to the firewall.
It amounts to shorting or lengthening the column shifter arm, trans shift arm or rod length to get the indicator to align with the trans.
If your shift rod still telescopes in and out with fore & aft lever movement of the lever; you could make a detent set up similar to what @olscrounger posted in the past.
Weld a plate to your shift shaft support at the end of the column that holds one or as many of these are needed. Have the plunger engage the slotted shift arm. https://www.mcmaster.com/products/detent-pins/spring-plungers-2~/slotted-ball-nose-spring-plungers/
Limeworks instructions may assist and detent gate. The following is from X38 and how he modified his column for auto trans. His thread
Found a couple pictures I had saved from the post I mentioned previously. A couple showing the column out of the car without the detent notches along with one in the car with with the detent comb cut. As someone mentioned you will have to make a support for the shift tube and build from there.
The Jalopy Journal
