You have to cut for the side of the shifter body to come through the side of the tunnel. The top of the body comes through about 2 inches and that protruding body then tapers down as the tunnel runs out towards the floor. The cut must run down below the lower tabs of the shifter body and then you have the 3/4 rod that attaches on the outer leg. That shift rod then needs the floor cut for at least 4"-5" forward of the shifter and it needs about 3/4" relief for the rod to not be in contact with the tunnel. I am sure you could pound that out with a big hammer, but I'd rather cut it than pound it out. Here's a picture that shows how much of the body is going to be sticking through.

https://i.ibb.co/SfLY9qX/Shifter-4.jpg

I don't think the big block is that much different from a small block in terms of tranny positioning is it? Like maybe 1/4" or something? In either case, this shifter mount locates the body up high and needs relief cuts in the top of the tunnel and through the driver's side or the shifter isn't going to fit. You can maybe close it in tighter and negate making the box as I did, but then you need to wrap a large boot down and around the side of the tunnel which I don't like the looks of? Unfortunately, I didn't see any shortcuts in how to do this right and did what I could to close it in while keeping it neat.

The current model Super Shifters have smaller diameter shifter rods but they are weaker design than the older ones like I have here. I'm pretty sure the Super Shifters have always used this particular mount, but as I have done in the past, there are ways to mount it down low using a different mount and the lighter offset shift rods. That means less cutting but don't think the functionality is as good with those modifications.

FWIW...I'm no expert at this. Just doing what I can with what I have here and pretty happy with how it's turning out so far. :cool2:

Here's another shot from the underside as I was sizing things up. I started with a smaller cut and tried to hinge that side cut out to box in the shifter body along the bottom edge, but it wasn't going to give me anything to mount a new boot around so I later enlarged the hole and then built the box to close everything in. You can see from this picture that even the lower shift leg for 3/4 needs to go out beyond the tunnel side. They are a very invasive install as compared to anything stock. LOL

https://i.ibb.co/VYp10cW/IMG-5783.jpg

I did not know about the different offsets. And yes my pace car was a 350.

I think the Mr. Gasket V Gate and the Long shifters require an even larger hole, which is why I haven't installed one of them in my car.

Love the shifter decisions!!


I personally love chaulk marks, and paint daubs, but I would cut up a floor in nearly any car to get a bad ass shifter in place.


This car with a stock shifter would have been a big miss in my opinion. I bet the shifter is the most fun item on the whole car, and each time you drive it you will be happy you cut some sheet metal the heck out of the way!!


I offer my Sawzall skills to any muscle car owners who want a big hole in the floor and can't bring themselves to do it. Not kidding.


Ryan W31.


This has motivated me to improve my shifter hump :-)

I never knew Hurst made another inline shifter besides the Vertigate. I also have a Mr. Gasket Vertigate, and that shifter is identical to the Hurst except for the script. I had to look up what makes a RamRod different than a Vertigate. Found a great pic to share.

Hurst made the RamRod first. I used them for years when I was younger. Kind of a theft deterant. Most people that road with me didn't know how to work it...Joe

Never owned a Ramrod or Vertical Gate. I did own 4 Hurst Super Shifters 1,s at 1 time, 1 had 4 Chrysler Liberty 4 speeds for my S/G car which I raced for 12 years. If we burred a Pro Shift Hub we could change the trans in 7 mins between rounds . Did that in 1990 @ Seattle. Never missed a gear in 12 years, they worked Mint, never saw the need for a Vertical Gate as they were big & clunky IMO.
That is world champion Mike Federer in the Penzoil roadster in the other lane.

Graeme, your going to love that shifter.

Hope so. Just waiting on a set of Z/28 frame mounts to come up from the US so I can finally get the motor into the car and mount the shifter and the headers. Full steam ahead after that and hopefully no more delays.

Just finishing my coffee before heading out to the shop for the day. Going to finish up the carpet install. swap the clock out for a center fuel gauge, install a new 3967939 heater switch and reinstall the column, boot & carpet shield. After that, I have some gauges and an ignition box to install and prewire ahead of the motor and trans going in.


https://i.ibb.co/xX8y30K/IMG-5912.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/ynRLSnS/IMG-5913.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/CwvRF01/IMG-5914.jpg

Looking great! Since the console/gauges aren't going to be used due to the shifter, what about a gas gauge? This would seem to be a good application for a U16 gauge setup, replacing the clock.

Yup...but you didn't read my last post John. (lol)

Doh! I was looking at the pictures and missed the text. :)

I'm the same way when there are good pictures to look at John. The carpet is now trimmed and installed but I'm going to leave the cuts for the seats and seat belt holes until I'm ready to install the interior. Next up I will pull the dash and make a few changes before installing some new gauges.

https://i.ibb.co/mzHqmXP/IMG-5921.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/tX9FLLT/IMG-5925.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/rvpQy0p/IMG-5923.jpg

Carpet around that shifter box looks great.

That turned out nice.

Looks fantastic! Where did you get your bowtie floor mats?

perfect.:beers:

OER through HeartBeatCity

Excellent and creative work!!!

I found an old Nova console harness kicking around here yesterday and robbed the plug and some terminals from it. I have now added a tan wire to extend the fuel tank wire up to the new fuel gauge in the dash, but also need to extend a pink 12V ign lead to it. As luck would have it, I have every color wire here but pink. I spent an hour running around looking for more wire yesterday and came up short locally, so I'm headed into the city this morning to see if I can find some pink ignition wire to run under the dash.

I need some for this plug and also need to run some pink for a couple of other hidden objectives. It's the little details that eat up your time I'm telling you. (lol)

I'm sorry but that's waaaay too professional looking for a true Day2 look. Back in the actual Day2 era (or as we Boomers say, IN MY DAY...) there would be half-a-dozen, fully ripped out carpet threads that were caught on the drill when you tried to drill screw holes for the shifter boot. And add to that a really uneven sledge hammered/peeled back wall of sheet metal forming the side of the transmission hump to add to the "authentic mess".

;-)

That's probably true for 70% of the builds back then. There was always the 30% that would do a clean install. There were a lot of guys with good handskill back in the day.

I've got several large boxes full of wiring harnesses from old cars. If you were closer I would gladly cut out a pink wire for you.

The dates have been set for SCR 24. Are you going to try to bring this car down for the event? It would be great to see this car go down the track at Beech Bend.

LMAO...yeah. :headbang:

I've had my share of threads wrapped around my own drill bits. Actually did one on the previous carpet from this car as I drilled the holes for the carpet plate and thought I was clear of the edge...but wasn't. It made a nice little run in a brand new carpet LOL. My problem now is that with age I have become anal and a lot fussier about my schtuff. Come to think of it...I actually have someone to thank for making me as anal as I have become. :grin:

Yesterday as I took those pictures I was saying to myself. I'll need to put a new blade in the knife and trim a small spot right under the edge of that chrome ring so I can miss hitting that carpet. I'll probably even use a pilot sleeve to make sure I don't catch it. :dunno::dunno::dunno:

I have enough here to do that if needed Freddie, but thank you for that. I found some wire and some connectors so I am golden for now.

Ah, so my butchery is just era accurate! May have made a small cut in my center console where the detent plate for the shifter was riveted on. Also, my ash tray door is floppy. A pair of random screws and nuts fixed it though.

Wires were spliced, the fuel gauge is installed into the cluster and the dash is all back together with the dash pad and the glove box liner back in place. Now to get back out there and install the gauges under the dash.

https://i.ibb.co/PhdHxSh/IMG-5938.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/s1sXCZY/IMG-5939.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/1QHc0nq/IMG-5941.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/Z2rsd6W/IMG-5943.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/5MdNLNf/IMG-5944.jpg

Sneak a Peek...

I got sidetracked a little tonight and banged in the rear seat so I could see what was going to look like. Also wanted to see if a Lakewood bar would interfere with what's going on here and I think it would kill the pattern on the houndstooth where the rear leg would need to fit in between the seat folds. . Suffice to say...roll bar is out on this one. I have to say though...I am liking the colors here. The seat and the side panels are going to need a little more fitting and tweaking before they are ready to go in for good but it won't be long now.

https://i.ibb.co/s5H4qLx/IMG-5950.jpg

i had the same problem with my 3pt roll bar for my chevelle I did not want to ruin an original back seat. so i made a new bar that was just short of going between the seats and put a rubber cap on the end to not hurt the seat. If you look in the car you cannot tell that it isnt attached to the car. Just a thought if you still want the day 2 look of a 3pt.

I think I'm going to stick to what I stated above...

I'm all good with that. :headbang:

LOVE the shifter Graeme, and your install... real nice! I agree with Steve though, most kids back then would've done a hack job so they could get to the races the same night they installed the shifter. I like your approach much better. Slow and steady wins the race, at least the clean install race:scholar:

I thought about doing the same shifter but ended up with a boring old Competition Plus so I could keep my original console and not cut my virgin floors.

I figured...I have time right? It was -30 to -40 here a couple of weeks ago and the shops heated so I might as well do something that looks clean versus hacking a big ol' hole. I'm so happy I did this now as the standard Comp Plus is just so sloppy when compared to how this shifts.

Now if FedEx would just deliver the frame mounts to me. (lol)

It was 81 in Long Beach today:burnout:

I really like mechanical gauges for their accuracy so I decided to install a couple of Stewart Warner gauges with a mechanical temp and an oil pressure gauge rather than the Sun gauges. Jason's hunting for a matching Green Line tach for me, and if I can find suitable gauges and chrome cups for the cowl, I may add a vacuum and fuel pressure gauge later on. Also picked up another pair of engine frames so I can get the motor installed later today. The headers are wired up out of the way and I'm headed back after my coffee to get the gearbox filled and make some final adjustments before everything goes in.

Boogity boogity. :naughty:

https://i.ibb.co/CQMSv9B/IMG-5975.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/zfdfJtm/IMG-5978.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/YpS7Lwy/IMG-5983.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/M9m0Zsm/IMG-5977.jpg

Use that oil for break in and then put this in it. https://www.amsoil.com/p/manual-tran...AaAj9iEALw_wcB
I had an oil related failure in my M23 when using the Driven oil. The synchronizer engineer from New Venture Gear, who is also working for AutoGear as a consultant, told me that they had done a lot of testing and the Amsoil MTG was the best that they found and recommended that I use it. So far it's working great. Also pay attention to AutoGear's oil capacity recommendations. Don't fill it to the bottom of the fill hole like you would a Muncie. If you plan on running it hard then you will need to modify the vent or you will have oil running out. It's best to fix it now before it's in the car. Use a 90 degree fitting in place of the vent and run a hose toward the front of the transmission with a vent in the hose. Under hard acceleration oil will come out of the standard vent.

Engine and transmission are both installed. Headers are in place and I am headed back out now to button them up and wipe down some greasy handprints. Still need to install the trans cross member and will then start on everything else including the ignition, starter, and wiring.


https://i.ibb.co/XSFRb8H/IMG-5989.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/x2vXcFK/IMG-5993.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/FV0m2jp/IMG-5992.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/R083wSP/IMG-5991.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/4g30ghs/IMG-5995.jpg

I was looking at the picture of the engine and transmission and I don't see the vent in the top of the tail housing. The AutoGear transmissions must have the vent. They don't vent through the front bearing retainer like the Muncie transmissions do. They have a seal in the bearing retainer and must have a traditional vent. If you already installed the vent then disregard this.

Morning Freddie...

A couple of things on this trans case if I may? Firstly, it has a 10 spline input with a nut and does not have an internal oil seal input, therefore it vents through the threads of the nut and has no need for the addition of a rear vent. It has 1 quart of driven gear oil for break-in and in talking with Nate at AGE last year, he schooled me on the approved oils for their gearboxes. He also gave me a list of which oils they were sold on. Amsoil MTG was on that list as were other ML-1 rated GL4/5 synthetics including Royal Purple Max Gear, Redline MT-90, and some others.

FWIW...my preference (much like Nathan's) lays with petroleum-based oils such as Joe Gibbs and Brad Penn and I would offer that it is all relevant to how you are going to use a gearbox, or should I say...how you plan to punish it. Different oils shift better at higher RPM, while others don't work well when downshifting from 4/3, and some are friendlier to bronze and brass than others are but are also subject to change when they add or delete friction modifiers and formulas from year to year. There's no one magic bullet IMO.

At present, I'm OK with the Driven gear oil for the break-in but may change to something else when that's complete. Thank you for the cautionary warnings. It's all good information.

OK, sounds great. I didn't know that you had the input with the nut and no seal. I noticed that the vent was missing and wanted to be sure that you had something in place to vent the transmission. As you know I abuse my transmission a lot. 7000 RPM clutch dumps with 14 inch wide slicks on the drag strip is kind of hard on it.

No tracks around here anymore unless I want to drive up to 3 hours away...and even then, it's not like anything you guys still have in the US (although I see many US tracks closing up now). Nowadays, if I were to end up at a track event, it would likely be a one-off thing just to see what the car is capable of between the poles.

Any intended abuse that this car will likely see includes me stopping on a remote strip of two-lane blacktop (amidst the Rocky Mountains) to drop the clutch and buzz the car through 4 gears. In fact, most of what I do now is two-lane blacktop cruising between 3500 to 6500 rpm while rowing up and down the box in hills or twisty terrain. If I'm lucky enough to find someone to run against, I'd maybe stop to bang it through 7500 once or twice and that would likely be about it.

It's more about building it to be capable of a high 11.0 - low 12.0 ET in street trim than to satisfy an urge rather than go to the track every other weekend. I do like drag racing, but those types of events are just not in the cards anymore. And I'm ok with that too. I like driving them and it's always nice knowing it's built to handle the clutch being dropped whenever I feel the need to stop and smoke the tires.

Yes...I'm impulsive that way. 3gears.gif