I just spent some hours welding in new floors on my 1954 Ford Sedan and will be running an automatic drivetrain. Since my floors are no longer holey I am looking at getting a shifter that does not require me to cut up my floor. Soooo.. I am looking at getting either a Lokar or B&M shifter since they both offer an application that does not require me to cut up the floor. Pros or cons? Any other ideas? Thanks.
i've used a hurs Quarter Stick in the past.a cble type shifter. only aa small hole for the cable and most of the unwashed think its a 4 speed. got one here if you want to try it before you decide on what to use. jerry
Hey Jerry, thanks for the heads up. Is it this thing? http://www.racenet.net/drivetrn/hurst-quarterstick.php If so, how is the reach when you do a speed shift on the slush box?
thats the one. depending on the height of you seat you can make a spacer to put it at the height you need. you can't overshift it when you want to do your own 1-2 or 2-3 shit. hqave to pull on the trigger to go past the gear. has a reverse lock out as well. jerry
My daily driver astro van came with the B&M Mega shifter already in place. Don't know about the install but I like the way it works. It also has the full-race feature of a ratchet shifter if you pull it all the way back. Not something I use very often while hauling precious early hemi parts around..although it's nice to know if John Force challenges me to a race on Dodge street, I'll be prepared to stomp his ass.
How about using the column shifter that came stock in the Ford? Very traditional. Unless you're building a race car?
I've got a B&M, Z gate I think they call it. I love it! It feels really solid and it was easy to install. Running a crappy 40 dollar deal on my 33', can't wait to get rid of it. The B&M has a reverse lockout which is real nice. Take a day or so to get used to but it's a real nice shifter. Crease Barons So Tex
I have a Hurst IndyMatic in the 54. Not recommended. Not NSS or reverse lock out. I found a swap meet Lokar for the T. We sell tons of Lokars, they work fine.........
I have got a BM Z-gate in my model A, works great without a problem. My lokar I have in my 55 Chev, works ok. The lokar will require you to cut a hole in the floor if I remember right since it bolts to the tranny. I had to have it welded back together after a factory weld broke and I had to replace the shifter knob after the aluminum threads got stripped. You can usually pick z gates up pretty cheap.
in my 54 i had a 223 with a ford-o-matic . when we swapped in the 260 V8 and C-3 we just used the stock column shifter and it worked just fine , and looked untouched .
http://www.bmracing.com/products/shft_auto/starShifter.html . Hey Rocky, thats the StarShifter, not the MegaShifter. The Mega is a full ratchet shifter. I have a Star in my car. Works great, but I dont like the looks too much.
I personally have never had any luck with B&M shifters. I have used Hurst Quarter Sticks in the last 3 cars I have built, and I will probably never use anything but! I love 'em, and you know Hurst makes a damn good product!
I think all B&M shifters shipped to Michigan were defective! Everyone I ever saw was broken, sloppy, or just plain didn't work! A friend of mine busted the handle off of his and drove around with a pair of vice grips clamped onto the stub to shift it with until he got a new one! I always use Mr Gasket/Hurst auto shifters with excellent results. My favorite being the old V-gate which featured a dual mode gate. It could function as a ratchet shifter, or as a stock shifter. I've also used the simpler, ratchet-only Pro-Matic. It's ratcheted forwards and backwards to work with standard and reverse pattern valve bodies and easy to use. The stock GM "stirrup" shifters from the early Camaros have also found their way into some of my projects. Not a ratchet design, but kinda cool and easy to swap into any car running a GM auto! One of my old Camaros had a locked up shifter, so I took it out and threw it away. Placed a piece of carpeting over the spot where it had been, and just grabbed the column sleeve to select gear positions! Made people wonder where the hell the shifter was...lots of fun when I was selling the car! I'd use a Camaro/Firebird column with out the nub for a shift handle in a rod project...let 'em try to guess how I put it in gear! (Even on floor shift models, 2nd generation Camaro columns had a sleeve that rotated as the shifter was moved!).
Hey man, I LOVED my Lokar, really did. Clean looking, push button knob, looked nice, wasnt bulky like the B&M's, people seemed to like the look in the car, nice cables, easy to adjust, I will use one for certian on the next car. The B&M's ive installed, never seemed very solid, always seemed "lightweith" when ya shfted em. Ive never owned one, but installed MANY in customers cars. Course as stated by BigCheese, ya could use the stock column, but ya probably had a manual right? So you would have to find a Automatic column for your car, or do some re-working of your original, if thats even possible. Good luck, take pics.
I had a Megashifter in my last truck and liked it alot. I put a Proshifter in my coupe and it's ok, takes getting used to and it doesn't look (or act) traditional, both are cable operated and bolt to the floor so you only need a few small holes. Paul
I'm using the Z-gate unit. My one caution on the cable operated units is be sure to route the cable in as large a radius circle as you can. My cable frayed and broke once because I had set it up with too tight a bend.
I'm using a B&M pro ratchet behind a C4 with a manual reverse valve body. I've only had the shifter in the car for about a year, but I love it so far. It reminds me of a factory mopar slapstick, no matter how excited I get racing or even goofing off, it only lets you go one gear at a time, I was able to hide it in a factory console and it's cable operated so it was easy to install. Only thing I don't like is you have to rachet it all the way into park, one gear positon at a time.
My current car is the first I've built with an automatic. Before this they have always had 4-speeds with Hurst Shifters. I am a huge fan of the way those shifters look/feel, and when I set up the 700R in my car I wanted it to have a "stickshift look" (don't flame me to bad for that statement guys). I ordered a giant swan neck Lokar, which stuck up even taller than the dash. It looked super cool, but it acted like a giant LEVER and would vibrate like crazy going down the road because it was so long. Eventually I swapped it out for a much shorter version of the same Lokar shifter and it works perfectly. They make a really nice product. Dan
Ive had great luck with my Lokar.They have a new skull shift knob out..anybody know where to get one???..
Ackkk!! Thanks for all the ideas and testimonials. My car was originally a manual so I would have to put in an auto column to get it to work. I do understand that the Lokars make a floor shifter now that only requires you to cut a small slot in the floor to allow the bracket cable to move in, not unlike the B&M style. I Always thought the B&Ms were too muscle car looking, but hey whatever works. I just wanted to make sure I was not going to buy crap. Thanks for the ideas, looks like I have to think a bit more on this one. Oh yeah, and I will have pics of my new floors and front end on my starphoto site hopefully by the end of my work week. I also will have pics of my rear end in too. My project is really starting to take shape instead of give shade to the scorpions.
Have made a few cable operated shifters that mount under the dash, much like using a cowl vent...NO holes in the floor.......OLDBEET
I've got a Lokar in the '38 and really like it -- solid, easy to install. My only complaint would be that the button vibrates sometimes at certain rpms. There's a Gennie shifter in the roadster I inherited from my dad (he was always trying to save a buck) and it's not as well-made as the Lokar. Just seems cheaper and sloppier. I agree that the B&M and Hurst stuff is a little too muscle-car looking, I'd vote for the Lokar.
If you'd like I can shoot a few pics of the parts I made/modified to get the column shifter to work with my TH-400 behind the Caddy motor. It is entirely possible to reuse the stock column shifter with an auto. My setup currently does not run a reverse lockout or NSS, but I feel with a bit more work I could get it to do so. Lemme know on the pics and if necessary I'll pull the parts out of the Kustomsledd and take measurements if you need those too.. Doc
The Jalopy Journal
