As soon as I hit submit I remembered how busy you are and I regretted the request. I also assumed the truck was near you and in the same condition as in the photo. I will send you a private message. Matt

 

No worries. The weather is supposed to smarten up this weekend. It's snowing here now. I'll probably get to it Saturday afternoon.

 

i did not see the adjustment slot. I read your reply and went out and made the adjustment. It still hits the seat.


petemcl If I move it foreward I would be bolting it on to the front mount brace and it would still be too close to the seat if it would clear it.


filthy6 I did not know of the double bend shifter when I ordered this one. The shifter is 24" and will be level with the dash when I get it in to my desired position.





I will be most likely bending it this weekend. I do have a heavy duty pipe bender press. But i may not be able to start the bend where i want to. May have to fab a jig or a two post bender for the vice.


Thanks all for your help

 

Let us know your process and how it turned out. I may have to follow your directions before long. I think I'm going to try the 16" bench bend but I'm worried about hitting the dash, bench seat, or both. The front edge of my seat is exactly even with the rear of the transmission tunnel opening. The seat is 16" off of the floorboard. Maybe taller than most others.

 

Bending the shifter went well. Much easier than I thought.


first of all I measured the shifter and how close it was to go to the dash. Traced the shifter on the bench. I checked several time so I would not over bend it.




First attempt was to remove the cable inside. heat up the shifter at the factory bend. using the small diameter die from my press in the vise.. failure. did not like where this may go. not recommended.


2nd attempt, I reassembled the shifter and wrapped it as not to mark the stainless. put in the press with the smallest diameter die, set the up so the bend so it was above the factory bend to give it a back bend. gave it several pumps on the ram. checked it to the stock outline on the bench. gave it a bit more until I have moved the **** back about 5 inches. While I was bending the shaft slowly, I kept pressing the shifter **** button, to check if it was going to bind. never did.
Bending time was on the 2nd attempt was all of 5 min. total re and re with two attempts was 30 min.


if interested I can post pictures tomorrow.

 

Please post the pics

 

Yes..Please. I wouldn't mind seeing the press you used too. I have talked to Lokar many times. They are helpful to be sure but have the disadvantage of not seeing the project. I have asked so many detailed questions that they may think I'm trying to make my own. This forum will probably yield the best information of what works and what doesn't.

 

here is a picture of the bender with the shifter in it and the work bench top with the original outline of the shifter with the newly bent one.

 

the shifter in the 1st gear position and the park position.

 

Thanks Rannaska for all the photos and information. What length shifter did you buy?

 

No problem glad to help, I bought a 24 inch.

 

are you guys happy with your lokar shifters so far? I ordered a 23'' with the dbl bend but now have stumbled across gennie shifters and they seem to get good reviews plus you can use any shift ****.

 

The Lokars are well made and do fit in a variety of positions. Denny (firstrider) says that he made a change to the heim joints that improved the feel. Maybe ha can give us more details? The lockout button on top of the shifter is a positive lock but the sharp edges of the button and the **** recess could stand some improvement IMHO (minor issue).

From the website the Gennie shifter for the automatic transmissions looks like it uses a notched gate instead of a button, not my favorite. And looking at the linkage and mount it looks overly complicated. I see linkage for an AOD but not 4R70W.

Before I bought it I would want to actually look at the product. They are out of Denver maybe one of our FTE members there could check it out?

 

yes i noticed the gennie didn't show a 4r70w option like i would need so i was maybe going to call. I did see that lokar sells an adaptor so you can use any **** and get rid of the button. I wonder how well it works.

 

I got my lokar shifter last night and started installing it. Where I think I want to put it, the side arm for the linkage hits the side mounting bracket before I can fully get it into drive position. WTF? Is my only option to move it back? I noticed petemcl looks like is hitting as well, anybody got a good way to get around that? It also hits the transmission mounting tab on the back but that is an easy fix to just cut that tab off the trans. I will mess with it more tonight