Saw this photo on FB this morning - what's the hook on the shifter for? Sent from my SM-G950U using The H.A.M.B. mobile app
To hold it in gear, for parking. I doubt that it was ever an accessory that was sold but I have seen old cars with hooks made of wire or with rope to keep 'em from being knocked out of gear when parked.
In days gone by, oval racers - stock cars / modifieds - would often fab a hook to keep their cars from jumping out of the "running" gear. Once they got to race speed, there was no shifting anyway so it was just insurance it would not jump out of gear.
That was a common fix for early circle track cars using early ford transmissions. It kept the transmission from popping out of 2nd gear during deceleration. My roadster could use one now.
Hello, You will be getting all sorts of choices as to what that hook does. That metal hook is probably a necessary item to keep the gear in place, while parked. So, if the owner parked, put it in neutral, he/she would want it in neutral the next time he gets in to the seat and starts the car. No surprise jerking forward with the shifting lever accidentally dropped into a forward gear. The long handle, if made with a heavy gauge, will create a weight going along with gravity, downwards. We had this problem if we made a long shift lever out of what ever was laying around. The first time, the level was so heavy that it dropped into a gear and assuming it was last left in neutral, started the motor. Obviously, the car jerked forward. Luckily, the car was outside and not in a garage. Jnaki The problem seemed to be solved with a short curve immediately after the insert point on top of the cap/cover. Your adjustments will vary. We made the first curve from a couple of inches above, curved the rod back to where we liked, then curved it upwards to the final "Ball" head position. One car liked the "near the seat position", while the other friend, liked the above the dash location for the ball. So, for that guy, it had to have a bigger bend and tall rod to make it not drop down into a gear. It was an angle, or shifting of the weight, and a leverage point on the rod going into the transmission. Everyone's location of the transmission shift lever is different. Experimenting is the way to find that point where the lever will not be so heavy, as to drop the transmission gears into a forward gear. Ha, High School Physics, despite being a hated class, comes through again, to solve a problem back then. We probably did not know it, but by experimenting, we were actually using physics principals, to solve a problem. Maybe it was sleep learning at its finest... YRMV
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