My shifter design.

[Doug Clark]

Hi All,

I've come up with this for a shifter design.

Fore - Aft
The fore - aft movement is a direct push pull onto the cable. The outer of the cable goes forward and loops around to the rear. The outer also moves with the left - right movment of the shifter.

Left - right
Left - right goes down through a linkage to the cable mounted on the floor. I would have made this a direct action as well, but there was not enough room to make the turn in between the shifter and the floor.

The cables I intended to be 2" movement 1/4" items from Midwest Control Products - Manufacturers of Ball Joints, Yoke Ends, Spherical Rod ends, Wireforms, and Tube Fabrications

Anyway does the idea look lunatic or not?
I've not shown the support bracketry around the shifter, but you can imagine that.

Are 1/4" cables sufficient in size? All the larger ones I've seen have 3" or more movement which is excessive, the 1/4" versions can have 2" of movement.

 

[egoman/ Shawn Wedge]

Looks like the shifter from a chevy citation. We had one in a ice race car and it worked well.

 

[Bill Musarra]

Doug,
The 1/4" cables will do the job. Be sure to get the ones with bulkhead ends. It will stabilize the cable better than the clamp ends. It appears you are using bell cranks for the angularity of your rods. These will work well. Just make sure they are supported well. It also appears your shifter will take up some room in the tunnel area. Be careful in that there may be a lot of things going through there and it gets crowded.
From your drawing it looks like you want to fabricate all the bits and pieces, but take a look at the Toyota Celica shifter around 89 or so. They will keep the cables close together and running fore and aft and close to the shifter body. They come aiming to the front, but it is a simple matter to turn them around. I kept the neutral gate to the left.

If the movement is the wrong direction for the trans selector, you can use 180 degree bell crank and reverse the action.

With a two inch movement in the shifter, your pattern will be fairly tight. As you set it up you will be able to tweak it as you feel the need. the different lengths and angles of the sides of the bell crank will multiply the action. I went through all this in designing mine as well. It can still be done with direct action just by looping them around and building supports for them such as this Brandwood model.

If you need more I can send them to you. I have many pics of the various designs of shifters, from cable to rod.

Bill

 

[Doug Clark]

Hi Bill,

Great pictures, thats basically what I'm planning at the rear (so i'm not that mad after all!).
At the front I hve no central tunnel in the car and I've jammed the seat closer together as a result and with the central mounted fuel tank behind the seats essentially wiring cabling etc has to go around the outside of the car and not through it.

 

[Chip Smith]

I used the same design on mine but elimimated the bell crank for the side to side movement and connected the cable directly to tabs on the shaft.
I used felsted cables and man this thing click the gears. I am very happy with it compared to the last set up on a previous car.