Does anybody know if a shift collar from a 1963 Fairlane will fit a 1961 Falcon ? My Sister bought herself a cute 1961 Ranchero with a 289 and AOD but the shift collar on the column is tore up so the builder cobbled it together with a backward no name, no detent, no neutral safety, floor shift. yeah backward -- park is against the bench seat and low is all the way forward, and there is nothing in the car to indicate that the shift pattern is backward. It's dangerous !! I have a 63 Fairlane that will get a floor shift if I build it and it has a good shift collar. If the Falcon had a later type column and box with a coupler between then I could just swap the column for an Ididit or something but its a solid shaft from the box to the wheel and the car is 800+ miles from my shop in her carport with nothing but simple hand tools available on site.
I think same thing , I have attacked a few of them many many years ago . Switched a few from column shift collars to floor shift collars from a Mustang
The collars are the same for Falcons, Fairlanes, Comets and Rancheros. You might need to custom make a detent plate for the AOD pattern; not difficult. Come to think of it, F100's also used the same collar.
Yeah, and they were junk when they made them! Ford had the best column shifter out there until 1960. I have changed them out in several different rigs. Even the tube that runs from the pot metal collar down through the steering column can split apart! Be sure to look at that too. I'm sure they make new ones. I loved my 312 Y block equipped '61 Falcon bucket seat car but was really happy when I got rid of the automatic and switched to a 3 speed OD on the floor! Dave
Those pot metal collars were OK if you had an automatic, but if it was a manual shift they would wear out badly. The reason your shift pattern is backwards is because the trans is from a column-shifted car. On those the lever on the trans pointed down, the floor shift levers pointed up.
yup - I just finished changing two C-4s from column to floor shift. But this AOD is so damn big they had to hammer the tunnel to fit it -- and there simply is no space to flip it like I did on those C-4's. The floor shifter in this thing is way to the left and right against the bench seat -- and its a piece of **** with no neutral safety and no "gates" or anything that would prevent gear changes from accidentally bumping it or even hitting a pothole. So it has to go back to column. The pot metal collar for column shift automatic on the car is so far gone and the lever is missing, but I have one on a 63 Fairlane that is perfect.
I have a column shifted AOD in the wife 64 F100 it was out of a 87 town car that was column shifted it had a bell crank to move it in the right direction that I reused on the truck
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