I recently bought a 51 or 52 Oldsmobile 3 speed transmission to put behind my 331 Cadillac. I know nothing about these transmissions and was hoping someone could help me find a floor shifter or school me on what floor shifter to search for. Attached is a photo of the trans, it came with the clutch the pressure plate the bellhousing and all smalls.
https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/hd-bop-selector-trans-floor-shifter.1300600/ Follow the link in that thread highlighted in red from Paul to see more shifter pics. Also, the Olds bell is a slightly different bolt pattern compared to early Cadillac pattern. You'll need to drill and tap for at least two more holes at around 3 and 9 o'clock. I believe only the top two and bottom two holes will line up with the early Cadillac engine pattern.
There is always the choice of using the Buick trans as shown in this thread 37-38 Buick trans with early olds gears etc | The H.A.M.B.
I had the same transmission in a '50 Buick. I made my own floor shifter from a long 1/2" rod, two heim joints, and a short piece of angle iron. It shifted backwards, but that was an advantage because 3rd ended up out of the way towards the dash. The angle iron bolted to the top of the transmission and had a hole drilled on it to accept the top heim. The rod passed through this and had a smaller heim welded on the end that accepted the bolt on the shift lever. It worked well until I sold the car. I was always going to spring load it towards the 2nd-3rd side and weld on a tapered shift lever with a fancy knob, but it worked so well the way it was that I never got around to it.
I and a buddy made ours in high school auto shop back around 1962. We got the idea from Car Craft (I think) when they did an article on a 57 Olds floor shift conversion.
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