I recently acquired a B&M Shifter ( http://www.summitracing.com/parts/BMM-80681/ ) and was wondering what is exactly involved in converting to a floor shifter. Any help would be greatly appreciated :Handshake
its pretty streight foward with that shifter. you locate where you want the shifter to be. drill mounting holes there. a larger hole needs to be drilled for the cable to pass through the floor right in front of the shifter. there should be a bracket that will bolt to the side of the trans. there may be a lever that attaches to the shift lever on the trans or the cable will just attach to the trans. read the instructions that came with the shifter for the finer points of installing and adjusting the shifter. if you dont have the instructions then check on the b&m website for them. if you got it used and dont have the brackets you can order them.
Thanks Everything was included, never used, my dad gave it to me, said its been sitting in his garage for a few years and thought I might want it...lol Didnt know if there were any wires to hook up or not, I didnt think so but I wanted to make sure...the box is out in the garage and I was just thinking about putting it in tomorrow since I dont have anything planned and didnt wanna get my hopes up if I was to run into trouble. Thanks again
you will need to lockout the shift linkage on the column..so it doesn't drop down and lock the steering wheel while driving.i learned this the scary way... you will also need a nuteral/safty switch that mounts on the transmission... ......
How do I go about doing both? I dont mess with transmission things and never done anything like this so Im completely clueless...is there any tech articles on this? Thanks for the additional info, the column shifter and NSS never even crossed my mind
yes please, how do i remove the shifter off the column (friction pin and then pull?)and how do i lockout the shift linkage?
I put mine in park and then disconnected the linkage at the transmission. Then I drifted out the pin and removed the shift lever from the column and installed my tach there to distract from it. Then I installed the shifter in a comfortable spot and ran the shift cable through the floorboard and around behind the linkage and attached it as the instructions said. My car shifts fine but I have no neutral safety, backup lights or anything like that. My car will start in gear too...unfinished but functional.
They make little micro switches that mount on the shifter, so that it only engages in neutral/park. You wire a power in and power out... that goes to your ignition. Simple to install and to hide the wires, and is definately worth having for safety issues.
Yes I have both the safety switch and backup light switch included in the kit, and Ill make sure its included in the install
I was just trying to answer your question about how its wired up. Im not sure of the style Frank is talking about that mounts to the transmission, but I know the ones that mount inside the car on the shifter itself work good. Maybe Frank can explain more or give us pros/cons of either if he's used both
Mine has those switches inside the shifter itself but I didn't know what wires it used so I never wired it up. I just wanted to get on the road ASAP. I really would like backup lights and for my car to NOT start in gear. If the shifter lit up it would be cool too!
Look up the instructions for the shifter you have exactly and go from there. They are very simple to do, and worth the time. Its just a momentary switch basically that gets contact when the shifter is in park/neutral
For my '72, both the Park/Neutral wires are red with blue tracer and the BU light switch wires are black with pin tracer (to lamps) and white with purple tracer (from fuse #5). All four are (were) located in a 4-wire connector just above the base of the steering column. I cut and extended my wires, but you could use wire taps if you wanted to keep the connector intact. Russ
Not sure how this could happen, the shift linkage can't activate the locking mechanism, that is controlled by the lock cylinder. By all rights the linkage will stay in the park position if the column is in good shape, it should be spring loaded against the detent. I worked with a guy that would cut down the part the shift lever fits into and then use epoxy to fill the hole. He would shape it, smooth it and paint it and you would never know it was there.
