It shouldn't take a lot of force to move the shift lever. Does it move freely into park when the linkage is removed??

 

the shifter moves freely but it's the leverage and angles that's messed up. the shifter arm is about 4 or 5 inches above the trans arm and the trans arm is straight back. if you pull the shifter back into gear the rod wants to push the trans arm forward not up.

 

I wonder if u couldn't find an arm with a different register point, vs create all that rube goldberg linkage..

sam

 

Are you trying to hook up to a column shift or a floor shift?? From the direction your linkage is going it looks like youre trying to hook up to a floor shift.

You can drop the pan and valvebody and flip the shift arm (180*) if need be, to work with a column shift. Done this many times over. The arm you show is definately a floorshift arm and yes 2 o'clock would be about where park is.

Also- make sure your shifter's arm length -center line (CL) of shifter pivit (or column tube) to hole on end of arm- matches the distance on the tranny's shift lever from CL of lever to hole on the arm. If it's not the same distance, the PRND21 will not line up correctly and there is a possibility that you won't have enough or too much sweep on the column to properly engage all of the tranny's gear selections.



Havi- I don't see how it would work off the column shift if it's pointing up. I just checked my '78 F150 and it's at 9 o'clock in park and goes downward as you go through the gears. (i.e. 8, 7, 6, 5 o'clock) I have another C6 from a '78 van that has the shifter lever at about 7-8 o'clock and it too goes 7, 6, 5, 4 o'clock. For the lever to start in an upward postion and act with the sweep of the column shifter it'd bind up or be like a reverse valvebody. And to my knowlege Ford didn't produce a reverse valvebody.

 

well, duh.. if u gotta drop the pan to replace the thing, just turn it over...

matter of fact, thinking back.. I did just that on my C6!

Sam

 

I was merely pointing out that not all shifters are the same. Heck, the truck originally never came with one, so whatever is used here, could be a hodge-podge in theory. I guess I need to be more specific with mine. The '79 Bronco I have has a 300 6 and C6 /NP203 swapped in. It's a column shift, it points up, and has been reliably plowing snow for a number of years now. The lever is not shaped like the one pictured here. It forms a boomerang shape from about 3:00 to 1:00 like the one pictured on the advance adapters page: TLC Parts

In post #9, I mentioned the OP's looked different than mine. In post #13 it was mentioned all column shift aimed down, all floor shift aimed up. I won't disagree with that... in a stock vehicle. We don't know exactly what vehicle was the donor for the OP's truck, and how the linkage will align since none of this is stock for these old trucks anyway. That's the trial and error of darksiding these things, and all we can do is try to help steer in the right direction. Maybe commenting on my application has only made things more confusing. That said, I'll back on out of here, gracefully and quietly.

EDIT: If I had to guess, there may a difference between 2wd, and 4x4, since the front driveshaft would occupy the same real estate or thereabouts, as a bottom angled linkage.

 

Ahhhh yes, 2wd and 4wd could be very different. Very good point. I've only had a couple 4wd rigs with C6s and didn't pay too much attention to them @ the time. So which direction does the arm move then when leaving park on yours? CW or CCW? (I'm filling my brain with new info, you can NEVER stop learning!) I'd like to see a picture of that (mainly to imprint it into my skull, lol) but now that i sit here and think about it, i may have seen one like that. I can't swear how it was clocked, but i do vaugely remember an odd shaped arm on a tranny i had dealt with that looked like a bic C or could be like a boomerang.

 

it's already a mix match of parts, mustang 2 or granada floor shifter hooked to the C6 shown above. Making a bracket or even cutting and welding the shift arm is way easier to me (dropping the pan is a mess on my back). If I make a bracket that uses the existing holes on the arm and point straight up a few inches when the arm is at the 3 o'clock position should work fine. I'll post pics in my thread about the truck when it's done.

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...-recovery.html

 

Thanks for the link. Yes, definately looks like a 74-80 Floor shift from Granada, MustangII, or the alike from the topside. You'd think the levers on the bottom side would all be the same (lengthwise) but I'm not 100% sure about that.

I can understand what you're saying now. Physically the floor shifter is positioned much higher above the tranny and to get a good push on the lever it'd need to be at least 12 o'clock position. In a car this shifter would sit much lower, and wouldn't be an issue. Makes sense now.

Ummmm... yeah you might be onto something the way youre doing it. Like I said just make sure the levers are equally long to keep your PRND21 functioning properly. Might be the time to 'add to' or 'take away' if need be. Give it a whirl, won't know till you try!

 

The shift rods might be the same length, but mine was bent into a lazy "S" shape when I bought it. In my haste I sectioned and re shaped it when the trans was in low not park. So it's back to the drawing board......