tranny tech 403-thats 4 on the tree!

[DomSmith]

Thanks Evan

 

[Skreddy]

Here’s how my stock arm ended up. I thought I got pics when it was off the trans but this is the best I’ve got at the moment. The offset of the arm sticks too far to the driver’s side so it needs to be narrowed. The Harley arm was never a long term solution in my mind, was something I had that looked similar. The way the stock arm has a flattened dowel pin with a nut isn’t reproducible with the Harley arm.

 

[DomSmith]

Those pics are great. Thanks for posting. Much clearer to me now.

 

[Skreddy]

I have been driving a lot with the tunnel off to watch the shifting, etc. I keep looking at the shift rod that goes to that side arm and don’t like it. Because the adapter moves the 3 speed shifter up and to the driver’s side, that rod is further up and left as well, like right at the edge of the gas pedal. The stock rod has a Z to it that I don’t think is needed with the adapter so I decided I’d make a new one. I think making a new rod might mean that shift arm doesn’t need modified at all but I’m not sure now that mine is cut and shortened. Looks to be better tunnel clearance with the straight rod. I bought a 4 pack of rod ends and may make a new rod for the gate selector as well.
Picked up some spherical rod ends, jam nuts and coupling nuts.

Cut some tube to length and tacked on the coupling nuts.

Installed to check fit and operation.

Shifted fine and should clear the tunnel better so weld up and paint, then final install.

 

[DomSmith]

Thanks for the update!

 

[SteveH]

Nice work! Where is reverse and what's the shift pattern?

 

[Skreddy]

Reverse is where 1st would’ve been on a standard 3 speed column shift. It’s the same shift pattern as the floor 4 speed. Easiest way to think of it: sit in the passenger seat and look at 4 speed floor shift pattern, then turn your head and tilt it slightly to look at the column, that’s what it is. So all the way to steering wheel and down is R (nothing up), next gate closer to the dash is 1st up and 2nd down, last gate closest to dash (and resting position) is 3rd up and 4th down. There’s a spring loaded stop coming up to R so it’s very easy to find 1st/2nd gate because you pull toward you until you feel the reverse spring pressure and there’s 1 / 2.

 

[Skreddy]

How about this….

Please disregard all the junk in the background….

 

[Skreddy]

Been a bit since I’ve updated. I abandoned using the newer tunnel and just modified my original. In the end, I think this will be less work and I won’t have a 3 speed tunnel kicking around.
A week or so ago I made this decision and made the initial cut, slices, tacks and mock up.

I’m back from a little woods trip and had time to work on it again today. Got all the filler pieces in and everything hammer-formed into the right shape to clear everything and just need to finish welding all the gaps then grind it. I ordered paint today to match capri blue and they’ll stick it in 2 rattle cans so we will see how that turns out. Hoping to wrap this up by the end of the week and get it back together so I can drive it again.

 

[red66toy]

Looks great!!

 

[MDH33]

Wish I had known you were going that route. I have a Capri blue 69 that has a hole cut in the otherwise perfect tunnel for a pto. Would've swapped you for that uncut one! Oh well, looking great!

 

[cruisermatt]

so so cool.

Highly recommend replacing those linkage bolts with hardened shoulder bolts at some point though.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

 

[bikersmurf]

If it wouldn’t be such a hassle to track down all the Tree shift linkages, I’d convert my ‘74 floor shift 4speed to column shift.

Still very cool though!

 

[Skreddy]

All done and back together. Very pleased how the cover turned out. I had some Capri Blue mixed up and stuck in a rattle can so I prepped my front floors and painted the floor and tunnel at the same time. Tunnel looks very factory which was what I was going for. I also made a new shift linkage with heim joints for the shifter gate selector (yes, got hardened shoulder bolts for all of them).

 

[red66toy]

All done and back together. Very pleased how the cover turned out. I had some Capri Blue mixed up and stuck in a rattle can so I prepped my front floors and painted the floor and tunnel at the same time. Tunnel looks very factory which was what I was going for. I also made a new shift linkage with heim joints for the shifter gate selector (yes, got hardened shoulder bolts for all of them).
View attachment 3116618View attachment 3116617View attachment 3116619View attachment 3116620View attachment 3116621

Just top notch !

 

[RodrigzCrzr]

That turned out great!

 

[cruisermatt]

Awesome

 

[mrboatman]

Dam Nice Work

 

[MDH33]

That looks awesome. Untrained eye would never know it wasn't factory.