We kind of discussed the shifter a couple of weeks ago, so this week I decided to go ahead and see if I could get it in. I’m going for kind of a 50-60s feel and looking around at the different shifters out there, I only came up with 2 that I liked; an original push button pod from a 50-60s Mopar and the cheapie flat handled automatic floor shifter that’s been around forever.

The only reason the push button lost out was that I would end up losing the Park feature of the transmission. So this is the shifter I ended up using.



As I only have a bare 518 case the first thing I had to do was dig up a valve body so I would have the manual shift shaft and spring loaded detents. After doing some research I found out that either a 727 or 904 valve body physically bolts into the 518 case and I had a junk 6 cyl 904 out in the back shed so I was in business.

I spent a day figuring out that a straight mechanical linkage would just not clear the transmission and transmission tunnel. Rather than give and go back to a column shift I decided to convert the shifter to cable.

The first part was fairly easy. I cut off the L shaped foot at the bottom of the shifter and drilled and installed a pin for the cable to connect to. I built a base to raise the shifter up which actually serves 2 purposes…..raises the handle up to a more comfortable height and keeps all the mechanism above the floor. I used 1/2" tubing to raise the boot up a little and give a place to attach the cable to.




I probably over complicated the transmission end of the shifter. I could have just run a long cable all the way to the transmission bracket and re-drilled the lever for the right ratio. When I ran the long cable I didn’t like the way it looked with two 180 degree bends and a loop at the front that may have caused some problems when the exhaust is run.

I decided to use a bellcrank bolted to the transmission. It allows the use of a short cable that tucks nicely on the frame rail and only one 180 degree bend. The other end is mechanical linkage to shift lever.





I’m happy with the looks and it shifts smooth and firm. Manual shifting with it will not be a problem.



The only thing remaining is to go into the base with a die grinder and cut some additional detents. The steps will prevent the shifter from accidentally being down shifted without pushing the handle down, and will also act as a positive reverse lockout which is required for racing and just a good safety feature anyway.