Has any one tried hooking a 40 ford column shifter to a muncie 4 speed and have success? Trying to figure linkage out to see if its feasible. Looks complicated.
I saw this done in a 32 Ford coupe. Don't know how it was done (linkage), but it required a separate lever for reverse
Yep, connecting the forward gears is easy; just hook up the stock linkage, and first gear will be where reverse was. Reverse is the issue.... Separate levers or cables to operate reverse are the usual solution, although there was a very limited number of US-built vans sold with column-shifted 4-speeds in the early-mid 60s but good luck finding one of those. You could also hunt down a import column; quite a few European cars in the late 50s/early 60s used column-shifted 4-speeds. A number of British cars used them (Hillmans seemed to be the most common seen here) and some Mercedes also had them. But again, not something you'll easily find these days. I hate to even think about sourcing parts for these...
Know of a guy who did this to his '54 Ford Mainliner. Column shifter was for the 4 forward gears and used an overdrive cable for reverse. Worked pretty good. He has since put a floor shifter in it.