Technical Push Button 727: What All Do I Need To Make One Work?

I want to install a push button 727 into a vehicle for which one was never designed. What are all the components I'd need to make one work?

 

fingers for starters

sorry I couldn't be more helpful but I am planning a trip, I intend to spend the next month riding my stationary bicycle around France

 

I see your permanent residence. This couldn't be Lance Armstrong, could it?

 

Obviously you’ll need a push button shifter assembly and shift cables. I believe the cables are being reproduced, but you’ll have to do a little imagineering to make them work in a non-stock application…

 

Borntoloze really knows how to push your buttons......

 

Any chance anybody out there has a factory assembly diagram for one of these shifters all put together? I can find the push button 727 fairly easily, but I'm lost as to how the cables actually connect from the shifter to the transmission.

 

There is only one cable, and it works like any other trans shift. The push button unit just moves the cable in or out. Some have a "park" lever, some only have Neutral.

 

Watching this one.
I have a cable shift TF and cables that I’ve always kinda wanted to use but no push button mechanism. I’ve seen units with the buttons in a row but the old Art Carr floor mount had the buttons in a cluster. What car did that cluster mechanism come from?

 

I have a Chrysler manual from the early 60's which I think has a drawing showing the push button assembly and cable.Will have a look when I go out to the shed and report back.

 

OK , checked and my manual covers full size Plymouth including Valiant for 62. There are pages of info on the pushbutton unit which needs two cables, a gearshift control cable and a parking lock cable. Lots of info and lots involved in setting up the unit. If you can't find someone local with a manual let me know and I'll copy and send it to you.

 

Which version of the transmission do you have? The "first" 727 was 1962, but that's a one year only transmission. Is yours the 1963 to 1964? They stopped having pushbuttons in 1964, switching to column for 1965. I can definitely point you in the right direction once I know what we're working with. Post a pic if you can, that will significantly help in ID and then in selecting which push button setup would work best with them.

~Peter

 

In 65 the government required all shifters use a lever on the column or console... No more push buttons. The 65 column shift cars and console shift still used the cable shift trans. It was a one year only deal. In 1966 the TF were lever operated instead of cable.

 

I've got that shifter in my watch list, Moriarity. I dig that one the best at the moment.

I have lever shifted 727s. I also have two 413s, one 440, and a 331 Chrysler. I also have a 55 T-Bird that I picked up from Lubbock a few years back. At one point, it was a custom before someone tore it apart to build a gasser that never panned out. Sat in someone's backyard for 50 years before I got it.

I was hot and heavy on finishing the gasser which is why I purchased the 413s and the lever shifted 727s. The longer I've owned the car, however, the more the original custom parts have grown on me. I want to restore the car to what I think it would have looked like if it would have stayed a custom.

The car came with a 64 1/2 Mustang Toploader. Right mods, and it can be a great transmission. It just doesn't fit my idea for the car now. I dig the Ford 3 speed Toploader. I especially like the one that Olds used in their 442 that were ordered from the factory with a 3 speed.

I might start off the car with the "Dearborn" 3 speed just to keep the factory T-Bird shifter, but I can't shake the idea of the push button 727. If I could pick up a package deal with all the parts from one car, I think I'd be better off.

 

In that case, it would seem that a 1963-64 Mopar would be the best donor. It would be hard to piece together with parts off eBay or from someone in a want ad; so I'd say your instincts are good to get everything from one donor. Cherry Ave in North Amarillo has a surprising amount of early 60's Mopars. I'd say start there!

~Peter

 

There are two cables...one works reverse thru low, the other one works park only. Most all of the shifter box assys. are the same. The buttons, in most cases are the difference. Some button set-ups before '62 had no park position. If you can find an Art Carr set-up you might want to pay what the person will be asking. I have a '64 Chrysler set-up in my '40, I like them because the buttons are translucient and light up. '65 transmissions are the ones everyone wants because they are the only ones with a slip yoke. '63 Dodge car are the easiest ones to mount, most times you can mount them to the bottom of a dash. Gene.

 

The one I had was from an Australian Chrysler, and had no Park cable, just 1, 2, N & R. I thought these would have come from the U.S. that way, but maybe they were made here. Park= neutral + parking brake.

 

My 65 belvedere plymouth was a column shift but still had a cable to make it work, it also had park. so I don't think it's a big deal. 64's were push button with the lever for park. Your gonna have to get creative. Lippy

 

Your gonna need the actuator(button and lever assy and trans and cables. Thats it. Lippy

 

I had a 1964 273 Dart with a 904 and pushbutton the dash

Looked like this

https://www.classiccarstodayonline....through-the-years/1963-dodge-dart-pushbutton/

The cable went down to the drivers side of the trans, the cable hooked to a part in the trans

There was a round steel piece on the cable that went into the trans and was secured with a bracket and bolt if I remember correctly

https://1962to1965mopar.ornocar.com/transtech.html


Ricky.

 

I totally forgot about Art Carr. Remember seeing one for sale over a decade ago. Don't know why I didn't buy it.

Went to the old Google search earlier when I found this:

https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/chrysler-products-push-button-shifters-any-info.992622/

And I saw this:




And then I found this:

http://www.aandatrans.com/Products/...Torqueflite-in-a-1962-65-Vehicle__AA3354.aspx

All of this came from this one thread. This company makes a conversion cable set that connects from a Mopar push button shifter to a 1966 and up Torqueflite. Man oh man, does this fit my bill! Think I found a winner.

 

Yep...that's mine. Gene.

 

A friend of mine has a 62 Imperial. He adjusted the cable(s), with the transmission pan off, so that he could see the "comb" inside the transmission.

 

Looking at internet images, it looks like Art Carr used a mechanism from the early cars. The in-car photo from Pinterest was labeled ‘56 Chrysler. The button size and layout looks just like the Art Carr. No park provision either. In ‘56, Chrysler must have had a cast iron TorqueFlight with the brake drum on the tailshaft housing. The PowerFlight version only had four buttons, IIRC. To make something similar to the Art Carr unit, one would need to find a ‘56 Chrysler TF push button unit and fab the rest.

 

Chrysler had two versions in 1956. The five button shifter was in the '56 Imperial while the four button shifter was in the '56 New Yorker. I found this out yesterday during my research. I found enough parts on eBay to build a four button shifter, but I'll be keeping an eye out for the five button.

Evidently, you can use either with the conversion cables for a 727. The five button gives you access to first gear while the four button does not:

http://www.forwardlook.net/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=24089

 

back in the nineties I ran a push button auto behind a 392 Hemi in my 34, the box was a 58 and the push buttons were early sixties Dodge, I absolutely loved it.

 

I really like this picture.

 

That would have been from a 2-speed PowerFlite, not the 3-speed TorqueFlite.

 

Funny how no one wants to use the Edsel telatouch in their rod.

 

That's a good point.