I'm putting a 700R4 in the 51. It has a manual reverse valve body so will need to be shifted. I have been looking at the options for shifters and there are some race friendly shifters with levers and vertical gates ect... (TCI, Motion Race Works, and others) and there are shifters that attach to the trans and look like old shifters for manuals (Lokar and other). Does any of you have any experience with these shifters and what are their pros and cons.
I have a Lokar in the 36 pickup (353/350). It’s fine. I have a “race type”, which requires a secondary operation to pass through the neutral gate, in both the Falcon (C4), and ot Mopar (Torquflight), and I hate them both with a passion. Just too clunkey for jockeying the car around the shop, maneuvering in parking lots, etc.
Ratchet shifters get sickening fast on the street. I sold one and put an Art Carr/Winters style gated shifter in.
I have a lokar in my truck, T350. It works ok, but the cable running down the shift handle rattles at times.
Give a look at the B&M offerings. Granted, they are a bit more street rod, '60s-looking than the Lokar/Gennie cousins. But you can dress 'em up with an old-school knob.
The race friendly shifters are usually not street friendly. The gates or levers grow irritating pretty fast unless you are needing that sort of thing a lot. On the other hand, if fast, hard, manual shifting is part of the plan, the street friendly shifters are very lacking for fast hard shifting. I had a Sidewinder side gated shifter on a truck I built. It was great when I was playing "race truck" but the novity wore off pretty quickly when driving normally. For the short time I owned the truck it was OK, but had I kept the truck, I probably would have changed it for a more street friendly shifter. My 2 cents.
Search Genie vs Lokar shifters here, plenty of discussion over the years. (Genie generally gets the nod because of the gate, with Lokar people don't like the rattle.) Late race type is not really HAMB friendly.
Thanks for the info so far. I have looked at a couple of the Gennie threads and at their web site. I can see what people like about the Gennie but in looking at their site (which I'm not crazy about how it flows or doesn't) It looks like the Gennie has a gate to from OD to D. I'm not sure that would be convenient with the reverse manual valve body. OD would actually be 1st and to go to second I'd have to hit the gate. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th would just be a straight pull. Slowing down I'd have to again navigate the gate to get back to 1st. If it is a smooth gate without much lateral pull it might not be too big of a deal. I kind of wish their gate was all of the forward gears on the same gate.
This is a great idea. While I like both the Gennie and the Lokar as they will retain the stockish interior look. I could easily fabricate the plate, but if I did it on a smaller scale, I could simply replace the gate plate on the Gennie shifter and do both. I can put a line lock on off switch on the shifter and wire it through a toggle switch for either the line lock or the lock up for the transmission. As you don't lock the transmission on the drag strip, you switch to enable the line lock for drag, and lock up on off for the drive.
The toggle switch and light on mine are for the switch pitch torque converter...sort of like a lock up, but not really. The pushbutton makes the GV overdrive engage, if it's in manual 3rd gear (there's a micro switch to detect that). I don't have a line loc, I just do a burnout in 3rd. Neutral safety switch at the Park position. And spring loaded reverse lockout. I think I have some pics of how it works, if you're serious about making one. It's not rocket surgery, but it is close.
B & M ratchet shifter on CL Denver for $100... Parts for sale - auto parts - by owner - vehicle automotive sale - craigslist Or, use an old 3 speed set up to fabricate what you need, also on CL Denver 3 speed shifters vintage, cheaper now - auto parts - by owner - vehicle automotive sale - craigslist
Line locks may be old school, If the car works without it, I'll leave it off. I said no trans brake to the guy going through the 700r4 so no launch control. My OT car from the 70s had a manual reverse valve body in it with a factory shifter. I remember the joy and challenges of driving it in downtown traffic. It was a handful but when we were young that just made it a challenge to accept. The manual lockup works much like your GV overdrive. If it's not in OD it won't lock up. So I'll just need one switch. I appreciate the offer for pics but I have a knack for brain science and your explanation paints a pretty clear picture. I will play with some designs and see how they work with the bench seat. This could be fun.
I used a shifter from a Postal jeep, used a rod to replace the cable. It is a straight gate where you depress a button to shift it rearward. I have it on a reverse vb and it is like it was made for it.
A thin wall heat shrink on cable, & some times stretch the spring Not hard to regate plate , If you make or buy a shifter make sure you study gates design , I have used many Race only parts in street driven R -R , The manual reverse valve body with out a Neutral after D or 4th are pain , I went back to Natural manual forward valve body
We would adapt orphan cheap 3 speed shifters into our stock cars with automatics. Mark the "gear" selections on the sheetmetal with a Sharpie. Good to go.
Did a lot of research on this--I wanted a shifter that was as close to an old Gennie as I could get, but found that only one had most of the features. Its the Clayton Machine Works shifter, another brand sold under the Lokar name now. I intended to install a 700r4 and this shifter into a 55 but sold the car so I never got to use it. I did put it in place just to see how it would fit, had a great look and I'm sure it would have been fine. FYI.
I always liked these. Popular back in the 60’s, early 70’s. There was a vendor that sold them years back. They sold the cables for the old Mopar push button shifters. Unfortunately went out of business. Been looking for one of these for years.
Those were introduced in 1967, it was the beginning of the modern race shifter. Which is fine, unless you're building a period car for 1966 or earlier, in which case the pickings are so slim, they're non existent.
The B&M 60 Series shifter was one of the gotta have automatic racing shifters in the 60 and 70's, I bought one new around 1977, curious how long after that they continued mfg.
My dad has a B&M Quicksilver in one of his rides. It's fun at first, but the novelty wears off. It has a pull-up push-down gate system to get out of park and reverse, then it has a ratchet system for the forward gears. There's a reason Lokar and Gennie style shifters are popular in hot rods, their ease of use (and looks). The ratchet shifters get old quick.
The Jalopy Journal
