70 chevelle factory hurst shifter?

[nuch_ss396]

Thanks Steve!

[P.J.]

Only shifter I ever saw in 1970 chevelles were the Muncie shifters bench and council. If you want to go back in our archives you will find the correct numbers for the 70 chevelles as we discussed this topic at great lenghts.
suprss70

[396/425blr]

thanks guys, that kit looks like the way to go. will a 68 VW radiator cap fit a 69? dennis

[Xplantdad]

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thanks guys, that kit looks like the way to go. will a 68 VW radiator cap fit a 69? dennis

[/ QUOTE ]

Only if it has the 'Ram Air option'....

[William]

[ QUOTE ]
This topic brings up a good point. Can anyone tell me why "The General" would offer a Hurst shifter for the Camaro, but not the Chevelle or Nova? Were the different design teams in that much competition with each other that the children wouldn't share with one another?

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One of the Muscle Car mags did an interview many years back with somebody that worked for Hurst. His comment to a similar question was that Hurst resisted being a large OEM supplier because it took the car built with a Hurst shifter out of the far more profitable aftermarket. There was little margin in supplying shifters to the big 3. Also some early 4-speeds were trouble-prone [Mopar] and typically the shifter unjustly got the blame. Hurst dumped Chrysler for several years because of this.

[nuch_ss396]

William,

An interesting point of view.
Steve

[YENKO DEUCE REGISTRY]

I spoke to Campbell (head of the manufacturing plant in Warminster, PA) about this many years ago. He backs up what William said, and also told me why the factory supplied Hurst shifter were round stock vs. the aftermarket being flat stock - cost. GM would beat them up on cost, and wanted the cheaper round stock arms that could be bent vs. the flat stock arms that they burned out of plate. Interesting guy to talk to

[nuch_ss396]

I've never driven a Muncie shiftered car, so I have no point
of reference here. How would any of you rate the Muncie
shifter as compared to the original equipment Hurst shifter?

I'm still having a hard time dealing with Chevy putting a
non-Hurst shifter in an LS-6 Chevelle. The top of the food
chain in power with a less then stellar shifter.... All
this, then let's save a few bucks on a shifter?

Steve

[William]

For an approximation of the "feel" of a Muncie shifter place a tire iron in a pail of large rocks.

The main design flaw was that the mechanism was fastened to a plate bolted to the trans crossmember. Engine torqued upon acceleration; shifter didn't go along and would bind. Once bound up it had a nasty habit of simultaneously selecting 2 gears.

Next design flaw was the wimpy stud for the shift knob. After a few hard shifts it would break off. If it was 3rd gear the dash would stop your hand.

Next design flaw was the weak reverse slider. It is about 1/8" thick and everytime reverse was selected the shifter arm would catch it causing it to crack. When it finally broke off it would rotate, thus preventing shifting into reverse.

Another really annoying design "feature" was a sliding plastic plate instead of a rubber boot on console-equipped cars.

From the same people that brought you the Pontiac Aztek...

[Keith Tedford]

I've had first hand experience with both. With our '69, which I bought new, you had to hold your elbow away from your body and pull straight back going from first to second and third to fourth. If you pulled sideways at all, the shifter would hang up in the neutral gate. The shifter had a lot of play from new. Once I figured out this technique, shifting wasn't a problem. Then, one day when driving normally, the third-fourth shift arm broke off up inside the shifter mechanism and dropped down. A Hust Competition Plus shifter followed and worked flawlessly ever after. Our '72 Lemans Sport has the original factory Hurst shifter with the rounded handle and it seems to work just fine with about 90K miles on it. This factory shifter doesn't have the bolts on the front and back of the box for adjusting the shift stop. The handle also is the slide in type that creates a little fore-aft handle slop because it isn't bolted on solid . The shifer rodss don't have the wear bushings either. I would imagine that Hurst wanted the round handle so that there was a differentiation between what you bought from the speed shop and what came in the car. I believe that the Speed shop version was a better quality unit all around. With our SS car I just adapted the Muncie handle to the Hurst box and got the best of both worlds.