On Flower's roadster truck she wanted the long shifter from her three speed after putting the T-5 in the chassis. A simple cut & weld was done and she is happy. I really think it would benefit from a "short throw" shifter myself but she likes the leverage it gives her as is. The only problem is....when get flies across the local railroad crossing.....it wants to pop out of gear if she isn't on the gas. Problem solved.....she just keeps her foot in it! That shifter mod sounds like the one we used to do when years ago I was autocrossing Corvairs....move the pivot (that worked almost as well as replacing the four speed shift tower with the one from a Corvair three speed)
In case you missed it, here's one thread about shortening the throw: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=226178
An update on my shifter quest. I wasn't about to cut up a 165.00 shifter in hopes that it would work. I rolled the dice on this $42 shifter (with leather boot)(based on your info). It was pretty easy to hacksaw the base and drill a couple of holes. So if you have an S-10 T-5 behind your flathead, you can get a quicker shift for about 50 bucks. That works for me. I'm sure it's not world class racing quality but I'm not a world class shifter. It has the shifter stops to protect the forks. Thanks for the information. I'm tickled.
I'm sorry. Ebay I did a search for T-5 shifters and started at the cheapest price. It had a buy it now for 42 with 15 bucks shipping. Their Ebay store
Thank You. That looks like I gotta do that ,too. Another thing to improve the shifting. On a T-5 that I put in my old pickup, I replaced the plastic bushing thing that the shifter arm goes into in that block in the trans. I made one from brass to the same dimentions as the plastic one. Greatly improved the feel of the shifter. Frank
Bar stock, Flat Ernie put a picture of it with dimentions in the tech archive of all the T-5 articles Frank
Mines about 30". We just machined and threaded a piece that would screw onto the exsisting shifter and then welded rod on that and bent to fit. Got about 10,000 miles on it with no problems. Gary
Hi guys, big problem with my conversion on a 62 Chrysler Newport. My T5 is an Australian Holden T5 and the shifter box just clears the cross member. If I where to shorten the throw by 1" plate lifting housing plate up it would fowl cross member. Any sugestions???
I'm not sure or familiar with the Australian model bu I'd presume that a GM S-10 tail housing would solve your issue as it moves the shifter forward about 8-10 inches. Not sure what GM truck this is in Aussie land but I'm sure you guys got them.....or Ebay. Paco
Greetings..Is there any way you can send me the photos of the t5 shifter mods? Just installed one in my 46 chev p/u..Any help is much appreciated
Did a tall shifter on a t5 once for a customer. Ended up going back to a shorter one after it would pop out of gear on any acceleration if it was in 1st,3rd or 5th.