How does a column shifter work?

I'm sure this is a dumb question to anybody over forty, but a lot of us have never seen one outside of a wrecking yard and even then the technical workings of one aren't obvious: How does a column shifter for a manual transmission work? The automatic shifters are easy, but I've never had a chance to really examine a "three on the tree" up close. I doubt I'll have the opportunity to go hit up a wrecking yard for one to examine anytime soon, so I was hoping somebody maybe had a scanned diagram they would be willing to share.

Thanks,
Dave

 

take a 3 on the floor and put it vertical and thats basically it

 

see if you can figure it out from this pic, this is a bit "modern" from 1966. The middle column is the 3 speed. There are two tubes around the steering shaft, the inner tube is the one that shifts. it moves up and down a little ways when you pull the lever towards or away from you. At the bottom end the two shift levers each have a tab on them, there is a plate at the lower end of the shift tube that engages it's slot on the tab on either lever when it is pushed all the way towards that lever.

 

The shifter in my car is really picky, cant shift too fast , cant shift too slow. Its sloppy and getting worn out but its kinda fun, people in the car next to you have no idea what your doing and the young hooligans might not steal your car if they cant find first.

 

IMHO: Worth a **** . . .

 

column shifters work so good that Hurst turned into a big company making floor shifters to replace them...

 

C'mon!! it's always fun looking for that mystery gear or getting out to 'flop' the worn out forks into the right configuration so you can get into gear.

 

Ford lower linkage:
http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/FH_images/FH_trans-pics/Flathead_Trans_1942to48_mounting.jpg
Ford column stuff:
http://www.vanpeltsales.com/FH_web/FH_images/FH_trans-pics/Flathead_Gearshift_1940-48car.jpg


Pulling lever axial with column chooses one or other shift lever from neutral position

 

Funny how you only need to do that when its raining, or when a bunch of people are looking

 

Yeah . . . or when you have your best clothes on, your stuck in a traffic jamb, and you're late to some important gig . . . like a wedding (yours maybe), or to meet your new girl's parents, or for a court date, or your headed to the airport for the vacation you've been saving for the last 5 years - and it's a non-refundable ticket and the cruise line is leaving . . .

Makes that old 39 box with the "swan shifter" look pretty sweet . . .

 

Ahh yes,,stacking the gears,,,stuck in reverse or first and ya have to open the hood and bang on the shifter forks on the sterring shaft to release the linkage,,,

I have had a few cars like that over the years,,but with a little effort that can be corrected.

My 64 Falcon still has a 3 on the tree and works like a dream,,,although someday,,when all the rest of my projects are done,,,I might convert it over to a 4 speed. HRP

 

I will always have fond memories of learning to drive three on the tree with my grandpa around his small sleepy town in his old Chevy pick up. Three on the tree is a blast and sooo many people "don't know how to drive it." It is amazing how many guys are afraid to drive a car when it is column shift rather than floor. Ummm hello, it is the same thing!

Here is the manual transmission page on Wikipedia..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manual_transmission

I am not usually a fan of wikipedia but they do a pretty accurate job laying everything out this time....

 

Thanks, squirrel, that's what I was looking for.

-Dave

 

A column shift can be as smooth as ****er if you take the time to repair or replace worn out shift levers, bushings(usually rubber or fiber composite) at the shift lever and the shift rods or levers at the bottom of the column.
40s-50s Mopars have a single shift lever bushing at the base of the column which is critical to good smooth shifting. They are available just as are the GM and Ford ones.

 

This thread has dredged up some old memories of what it was like driving a 3 on the tree back in the day. Imagine this: you get in the car, there's a place for the key so you put it in, turn it, but the motor doesn't turn over. Why, because there is a switch on the floor that engages the starter, you stomp it and hold it down til she starts. So you get it started and head down the street. There aren't any turn signals so you stick you arm out to signal the direction you're turning. It starts to rain so you turn on the wipers while your going uphill the wipers stop. Oh yeah, vacuum wipers. Well it starts to get dark and you flip on the lights. A guy coming at you has he's brights on so you look for the switch. Not on the dash, not on the turn signal like late models...oh yeah, another switch on the floor so you stomp it for brights, stomp again to turn them off. While doing all this you have to run it up thru the gears. For reverse you pull and push up. For first you pull and push down. When shifting to second you push up and forward. For third you push down. Like on the floor except on the column. Now if you had to do all of that today you'd have to add a cigerette, cup o coffee, cell phone, make up, cheeseburger, GPS, radar detector, multi function CD player with video screen and newspaper or book. Man, how did we ever survive?

 

In my experience, early Chevies always have lots of slop causing hangups in the mech where levers on column are; early Fords have simpler and more durable design here. All are troubled by failure of the little bushings at each end of the connecting rods, and replacing those and readjusting rod length will give you radically better action for a cheap and easy job.

 

In 1962 I bought a shiny original 47 Chevy coupe with only 44,000 miles on it for $500. Since my very first car was a 54 Chevy I was familiar with three on the tree but this 47 was SOOOOO sensitive about shifting. If I drove it normally like I did the 54 I just could not find second gear. Eventually I figured out that it had a vacuum shift on it and you only needed to nudge the car out of low and the vacuum took over to get into second. UGH! This was little old lady stuff! At the time I was heavily into speedshifting the T-10 in my ex Superstock 60 Chevy which was my daily driver. Eventually I sold the 47 because I couldn't bang gears in it.

 

I like the fact that nobody under 40 knows how to drive one (or, it seems, even knows that they ever made a setup like this), and that I can lessen my fear of somebody stealing it.

When I went to the tire shop, the guy hopped into the truck to pull it into the bay and asked "So, uh, is this like, an, automatic with a clutch?" I had to pull the truck into the bay for him.

Mine shifts alright, you just have to be careful to not go too fast, and to make sure you move the shifter in the H pattern when going from 1st to 2nd (no cheating, diagonal shifts).

Nick

 

No floor starter in my Falcon, but otherwise this kinda describes my last trip across the state. I like the column shift, but the vacuum wipers have gotta go.

-Dave

 

I had one once and thought it was lame, its hard to look cool shifting a three on the tree.

 

I'm 25 and learnt to drive in column shift cars, why is it so difficult for everyone else that is my age or younger. If anything column shift is easier. My buddy brought a 53 chev for his first car ( a resonably rare car in Australia) His girlfriend had to drive it home for him and then I had to teach him to drive column. ****in Blouse

 

Learned to drive with a 3 on the tree in a '55 Ford that my parents bought new, still have the car. The only thing that ever gave any trouble was the bushings in the shift linkage, easy replacement, made it shift like new again.

 

You guys are a bunch of wimps . Just fix it, put in new bushings and stuff, make sure it all lines up like it should and column shift works great. Contrary to popular opinion you can power shift with 3 on the tree, been there done that. Some of my favorite hot rods from the '40's and '50's had 3 on the tree.

 

I have a 3 on the column so my girlfriend cant ask to drive my truck.

 

That’s one of the best insults I’ve ever heard.

I’ll admit to having some “four-speed baggage” to overcome when I first tried out the three-speed, but it’s really quite easy once you know what’s where.

I think most people missed this - but the original reason I posted this was because I wanted to know about the mechanics of column shifters, not their operation. At the time I was trying to figure out why you never saw column-shift 4- or 5-speed transmissions.

The vacuum wiper thing, though, stuck with me, and when I found myself doing almost exactly as described, I had to mention it here.

-Dave

 

yeah vacuum wipers ****. but i love my 3 spd. it was actually the easiest thing to put back together after the engine swap. took a couple pics and wrote what arm went where right on the shop floor under the car. couple or cotter pins and springs and it all went together and shifts perfect.

and i can bang gears......and bark out mean 2nd gears. and i think it looks bad*** to throw a big 2nd shift and squeal the tires.

 

I had a '47 Ford coupe that I converted to left hand column shift by simply pulling the pin and flipping the lever over to the other side. Really quite easy with the Ford method of having the shifter as a separate piece on top of the steering column.

Really confused people when they would look in the car and not see the shifter.

 

I just went to a hell of a lot of trouble to keep my 3 on the tree with OD. In my early hot rod days everybody put in a Spark-o-matic floor shift conversion. I thought long and hard about it but it would just look like another 4 spd car. Nothing wrong with that but some of the old farts might notice the 3 on the tree OD and find it a little different from the m***es. I just came in from the garage. I finally have the engine and trans hooked together and ready to drop in the ch***is. What a PITA.

A bid thanks to fellow HANBER Donnie. I never would have made it if he hadn't stopped by.

 

I realise that this does not directly relate with this subject but toyota had 4 + speed column shifts ,i had a 74, stout with a 4 speed and i had a buddy with a toyota 5 speed column shift van

 

well, if you've got a 3 on the tree that's not worn out(like in my poncho) it's basically, neutral about 3 o'clock-pull shift lever toward ya and down for 1st, up to top for second and down for third. or, in my case, a lot of grinding and not going into gear.