A lot of things bug me about reproduction business and their catalogs. They call things stock original when they are not but might fit. Or the quality is poor as we know and there is a thread currently on here.

My latest pet peeve is this. Their catalogs say the **** on the remote or column shifter is a round **** for 53 to 55 and it is a longish spherical shaped **** for 56. My 54 I bought from my grandpa and he bought it new. It has the sphere shaped shifter. I have seen other 54s and 55s with the spherical shifter. Most 53s I have seen have the round ****.

So 53 to 56 owners please check in here if you have a 3 in the tree and tell me the year and your shifter shape and obviously if it is original to your truck.

 

Hi, Mines a 1951 F1 3 on the tree with a ball on the end and the whole truck is original (although a lot is in boxes right now lol)

 

My 54 has spherical ****

 

My 54 came to me with a ball. Don't know detailed history of it except the Connecticut owner I purchased it from purchased it online from someone in Nebraska. The CT owner swapped in a 56 frame when he found the original was badly cracked and poorly welded.

 

Spherical on my 55. Near as I can tell it's original, I have no reason to believe otherwise. It's disappointing the lack of quality out there, even more so from trusted sources.

 

Mine's a '53 and original and it's a sphere (ball). I don't know what that other shape might be called, but sphere is a ball. The others are lozenge shaped? Elongated spheres, maybe...

 

Good point... so some clarification:

This is the ball **** which Mid-fifty and others say is for 53-55 trucks. Mid West says it is for 48-55, but when did they first come out with the remote shifter? 1951?:


This is what Mid-Fifty and Mid West call the the sphere or spherical. Mid West says it is for 1956. Mid-Fifty says it is for 56-60.


What is the definition of a sphere? a ball shaped mass, right.

So lets call the round one the ball **** and the long one the long sphere.

 

My 56's both had the sphere shaped ones abe...I still have the whole column from steering box to steering wheel out in the shed..

 

The long shape is close to an ellipsoid, but that's kind of hard to type....

 

From the 1948-1956 Ford Truck Parts and Accessories catalog.....confusing!

 

My '53 came to me all original with the Ball ****. No reason to think that it has been replaced, shows the same amount of wear and tear as the rest of the truck.
Assembly Plant St. Paul.

 

Here are pics of two 53's that I saw at a classic car auction the last two summers. Both had the round **** on the shifter but I don't know the history of the trucks.

 

Could this be a clue? Is it possible that some plants had the ellipsoid (for Ross) and just used them?

Although if the ellipsoid came out in later years, you wouldn't think that. You would think the ball would be used on later years.

You know, if you have a real truck with 4 on the floor you wouldn't have this concern.

 

Indy, thanks for post the illustrated parts catalog. It is contradictory to what we are finding with this survey and with past observations. I think it is safe to say all 53's came with the ball **** on the remote shifters. No question there.

It looks like most 54 to 55 trucks came with the long spherical shifter ****. The exploded parts diagram shows the fordamatic shifter **** was the long spherical ****. At some point either a mistake was made in the parts catalog or a decision was made by Ford to use the long spherical **** on both the fordamatic and the remote three speed shifter. Now I can see why the repop places sell the round **** for 53 to 55.

Keep the survey results coming please.

 

Ford replaced both types of shift lever ***** with the 1959 type (B9C-7213-A) that is similar to the 1956 type.

3 M/T: Upper pic: 1956; Lower pic: 1953/55.

A/T (not shown): 1953 shows the ball type; 1954/56 shows the same type as 1956 3 M/T