Always fascinating what the automobile companies came up with. This '39 Lincoln Zephyr has an unusual shifter. Curious as to how it worked. Looks like an adaptation of a "standard" 3-speed tower-shift transmission. Must've been some short linkages inside the center console (if that is what it was called back then) Anyone know for sure, or have a parts breakdown showing the mechanism?
Can’t help with that, but was it called a “waterfall” back then, or is that a later term? Still, as Classy as Hell then, and still classy now.
Works the same as a Ford transmission of the same year, except the architecture is slightly different. The housing tower was out of the front right corner instead of the middle. The shift lever is long, bent in many places, and only shows after it comes out the side of the dashboard. But it does the same thing as a Ford would do. They are really ugly with the dashboard missing.
It's just a regular H pattern 3 speed shifter that has a lot of bends so it looks like it's floating from under the dash.
It’s just a long bent up shifter. Only noticeable difference is the throw between gears doesn’t seem as long as on a ford box . here’s an example of the shifter without being hidden. Kinda interesting looking
The 38-39 Zephyr shifter housing definitely provided a shorter throw than any of the regular 32-39 Ford shifter housings. Because of the overall additional length of the LZ lever, I think the engineers at Ford felt that they needed to compensate for that, and keep the movement at the knob about the same. Plus they were trying to keep the lever and knob within a fairly confined “console” in the center of the driving compartment. We’ve built a few of these transmissions which were destined to live in a hot rod, with the regular Ford shifter lever (modified to mount to the LZ housing). They make for a slick “short throw” transmission.
The Jalopy Journal
