OK... back to this problem.
This may be long, as I want to explain the problem in detail...
I got a gear shifter box (what GM called the lower control shaft and housing assembly) from another stovebolter which he took out of his '54 Chevy truck, so I could replace the one in my '54 truck as it had been leaking excessive amounts of grease where the end of the lower shaft protrudes through the housing. I compared the two parts and found they are the same size. So I took the "new" one, cleaned it up, and went to install it.
With everything put where it should be, I'm not getting sufficient clearance at the gearshift lever to shift gears.
Here's how it looks: Starting just under the steering wheel, the gearshift lever bracket is mounted in the holes provided in the steering column (no wiggle room there) and the clearance between the lever and the bracket is as called for in the specs.
Moving on down, the upper and lower control shafts are attached with the clamp by a pair of bolts that run through the bolt holes and the concave grooves in the shafts. Not much wiggle room there.
On the other side of the firewall, the gearshift assembly housing is mounted to the steering column with the little protrusion (I'll call it a "button") in the bottom sitting in the long hole in the column as it should be. It is resting at the lower end of that hole. It could slide up the steering column about an inch, but even at the bottom, with everything above it to spec, the gearshift lever is positioned too close to the steering wheel. Adjusting the box higher on the column would only push the lever closer to the wheel.
In this setup, there isn't enough play in the gearshift lever to allow me to pull the tab up into the 1st/Rev gate in the gearshift box.
There is a small round hole in the column an inch or so below the long hole. If I move the gearshift box so the button sits in that secondary hole, the upper and lower shaft bracket cannot be bolted properly, and the 1st/Rev outer lever that connects the gate to the 1st/Rev transmission rod doesn't clear the manifold. (Admittedly, the "new" box came with a slightly longer 1st/Rev outer lever, and I may have to use the old one as a last resort.) Plus, a section of the oblong hole is exposed and could allow dirt and unwanted crud to get inside the steering column.
This means that as of now I have to find an arbitrary place on the steering column to mount the box, and as there is no hole for the button to drop into, there is no up/down or side/side stability. This was part of the problem I was having with the old box too.
Short of the steering column having shrunk in length over the years, this just isn't making any sense. Separately, all the pieces fit as they should, but together the control shaft is just too long.
So I guess one of the things I am wondering is if GM made the lower shaft assembly in two different lengths for these trucks.
Has anyone else run into this problem? If so, how did you solve it? I don't want to continue with the gearshift control box attached to the column in this manner because it gets out of alignment and causes all sorts of shifting problems.
HELP!!!
