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Jul 21st, 2025 | | | | Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 385 Wrench Fetcher | | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 385 | I thought I had asked about this before but couldn't find it by searching.
Anyway, I have a '51 4400 and a '5? 3800, both with SM420 transmissions. I don't like the stock shift lever, especially it's position. Naturally, I don't want to relocate the transmission.
I thought I saw a really expensive linkage that would do what I want, but can't find it now.
What I want to do is mount a fairly short shift lever just in front of the seat, in some kind of swivel cup. From that lever I run a rod to the stock shift lever, which would be cut to four or five inches long.
It seems to me that I wouldn't have any trouble with fore and aft movement even with a single linkage rod, but I'm not sure about side to side, even with fairly tight clevises on each end of the rod.
Has anyone seen or done anything like this?
195? Chevy 3800 dump truck
1973 Chevy C30 cab and chassis
1987 Suburban 3/4 ton 6.2L Diesel
| | | | | Joined: Jul 2004 Posts: 5,708 'Bolter | | 'Bolter Joined: Jul 2004 Posts: 5,708 | starkweatherr,
Haven't seen it and don't know why, but with only one pivot point on the new little shifter, all your movements to the old chopped off shifter would be bass-ackwards! Just like flipping the shift arms upside down on a conversion kit install...your shift pattern is reversed.
Stuart | | | | | Joined: Oct 2001 Posts: 3,458 Extreme Gabster | | Extreme Gabster Joined: Oct 2001 Posts: 3,458 | It would be a lot simpler to simply bend the shift lever.
If you can find a COE shifter you might be able to modify it to do what you want.
Paint & Body Shop moderator
A lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic. | | | | | Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) | | Kettle Custodian (pot stirrer) Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 28,674 | A little creative torch work, or possibly even some welding should put the shift knob in a different position, but it sounds like you need something on the order of the shifter we used to fabricate for controlling a Brownie on a big rig. A small ball joint or tie rod end bracketed to the floor provides a multi-directional pivot, then drill and tap a shift stick to screw onto the thread, and you can use a clevis at the right height above the pivot to control the length of stroke. Difficult, but not impossible to fabricate, and big-rig truck mechanics have done it for decades.
Jerry
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| | | | | Joined: May 2005 Posts: 8,877 . | | . Joined: May 2005 Posts: 8,877 | Look at this Roadranger parts manual full of different kinds of shifters and remote shifter setups. http://www.roadranger.com/ecm/idcplg?IdcService=GET_FILE&dID=9497I think you will like the one on page 32, and you could use it with an SM420 Page 11 may be simpler, just a way of offsetting the shift lever if you don't have to go far. Grigg
Last edited by Grigg; 04/10/2008 12:17 AM.
| | | | | Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 385 Wrench Fetcher | | Wrench Fetcher Joined: Feb 2007 Posts: 385 | Thanks HotRod Lincoln, and Grigg, as usual. Page 32 is exactly what I had in mind, but I think page 33 (The offset one) might work better.
195? Chevy 3800 dump truck
1973 Chevy C30 cab and chassis
1987 Suburban 3/4 ton 6.2L Diesel
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