Mopar trans woes

Does/Did, anyone make a 3 speed floor shift conversion for the Mickey Mouse '40's-'50's trans linkage. Earlier this year I got a one owner '53 Desoto, real nice overall. But,,,had to replace the reverse idler because, apparently, the 1st gear slider would hang and then snap out and clip teeth off the idler because of a false neutral. It did it to me Yesterday, don't know how the gear is now, but that must have been the problem before. The gear lever workings are in the enclosed column, that doesn't make it easy to work on.......any advice is welcome, Thanks

 

They did at one time ("they" being Ansen and Drag Fast), but that was a long time ago. Punch "selector shifter" in the search category and it will bring up some pictures of shifters others have made or modified to do what you want to do.

 

Here's a few examples of some old mopar selector-style floor shifters, both are brutally simple. I have no idea of the manufacturers of either one.

 

Thanks for the comments,,,,Daliant, that drawing is like a blueprint,, I can make that.....
That is the trans' I have.
s****iron

 

Built a stick for that trans one time, used a lever like a motorcycle brake lever to move the selector into Low and Reverse. Squeeze and pull!
BTW. the '57-up trans will fit your engine, and is a normal shifter piece.

 

Pope, that's an idea too,,,or maybe an old style 'E' brake lever,,,,Hmmm,,

 

I do have a question on this topic. I have a 57 v8 pickup, and it uses the early style of trans like this unit. I found a 57 6 cylinder 3 speed overdrive but p***ed due to the rear crossmember style mount. Has anyone just hung the later transmission and had issues? I also figured I would have mounting trouble with the small pilot, long input shaft and the bolt pattern. I thought about the bell housing but I didn't want to change the whole engine mounting system. If I could find a plain v8 57 era trans I know I could swap the input shaft and pilot housing.

 

Whoops! In regard to my original post, I didn't mention that I have an OD trans',,,sorta' forgot that, DUH,,,. Any sort of floor conversion becomes VERY difficult with the solenoid position blocking the way of linkage from the rear. Gonna' have to see about fixing what I have for now.

Thanks for the replies.