Coloumn shift AND manual valve body. Will this work?

[Sharpdart]

Not sure if this belongs in this forum or not, but I am going to give it a shot.  We are making another a body bb car, it is a 75' Gold Duster.  Going to be nice to keep the back seat into it.

My question is it is a column shift steering wheel now, can I retain the stock column shift and have a the turbo action reverse valve body?  I am a little spoiled on my Dart 440, as it has the floor shifter, and rvb, so its a no brainer.

I just got to thinking how this can be done?  If not, what do you guys to with your bb and column shift?

Pics would be great to if you have them.




Sharpdart

[drjay0]

Try PM'ing actionange. He is a friend of mine that has this done.

[Evan]

Sure it can be done. Mine was like that before i switched to floor shift. It worked just fine. Just remember to shift and remember which position is 1, which is 2 and which is 3.

[Jamakin]

going for somewhat of a sleeper look?

[BBLM23]

Yes, it will work. I had a B&M manualpak, forward pattern.

[Sharpdart]

going for somewhat of a sleeper look?


That is it exactly.  I have a 73' Dart Sport w/ a 440 in it aleady, but...  It hurts to drive it, solid mount w/ motor plate, its loud and w/ the roll bar, cumbursomb (sp) hard to get in and out etc, etc.

With the Duster, we will retain stock everything, including the back seat, so taking 2-3 extra people will be fun.  Plus w/ the high price of fuel we all can jump in one car vs. 3 others.  I spend the 5-6k so we can save $30 in fuel .

Ah, the devoted Mopar fan.

So, I have looked at Mancini website, and Turbo Action lists the new 'Forward Valve Body', that is great for 'street use'.  I am used to the T/A reverse valve body, and for keeping the column shift, I think I would feel safer going down a gear, vs. going up a gear w neutral in the way.

Any thoughts on this.  I know the vb is relatively new, but what are you guys running for valve bodies?


Sharpdart

[jamesdart]

i have the foward pattern manual vb from t/a. it is about 3 years old. it works, ok i guess. i was hoping for much harder shifts though. i do have the column shifter too.

[mopartranman]

Sure it will work, And you can do some work in the column to make it work even better. Not too hard to do. There's a little peice of metal inside the coulmn that is held in with 2 phillps screws. It's the part that locks the shifter lever into place when you move the lever. I pull the coulmn apart and take it out and modify it where 1-2 gear is. That way you cant miss 2nd gear. When in 1st gear all you have to do smack the lever downward to go into 2nd. Then you pull the lever toward you and shift downward going into 3rd. Works great! Here's a pic. Just grind down where the red paint is. you will have a positive stop at 2nd gear.

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[Sharpdart]

That's great.  It is bookedmarked for future reference.  We will be yankin' the /6 in a few weeks, as I am trying to now figure out which direction to go for a tranny.

Sharpdart

[Loth440]

Personally I would go forward pattern valve body for that setup. I had one and it worked just fine for me.

[Sharpdart]

Forward it is.  The new TA forward manual valve body looks like the one!.

Quick question though.  How, and where do I hook up the bracket for shifting, where does the cable mount.

[mopartranman]

I would put msd with a rev limiter on it if your going with a forward pattern valvebody. Shifting from 2nd to 3rd during wide open throttle you may miss 3rd and hit neutral. 

[Sharpdart]

Judging by your pic it would seem that it is setup for a forward pattern already?

Any ideas on how to mount the bracket for the actual cable?

Sharpdart

[Evan]

the picture in mel's (mopartranman) picture is labeled with the factory shift positions. but think if it was reverse - the D would be 1st gear, the 2nd would be 2nd gear, and the L would be 3rd gear. see - if your shifter was in the D position, it would be in 1st with a reverse valve body, then just pull the shifter down and with mel's modification, there's NO WAY you can overshift. I would definitely use a reverse valve body with column shift. I used to have column shift with a forward pattern and I just about blew up my tranny - its just too easy to hit neutral or go from 1 to 3. hope this makes sense -Evan

[Sharpdart]

Ah. Now that makes sense if that was the case, that it is a rvp.   . 

My problem still is how?

On a floor shifted you have some bracket of sort to shift along.  How is this done on a column shift.  We have not cut the steering column yet, but threw out the linkage bracket from the /6.

How is this setup done?


Sharpdart

[Evan]

if you threw it out - you'll have to find a new shift linkage, but shouldnt be hard since junk yards are filled with column shift cars

[Sharpdart]

OK, I went and found out that we DID  NOT throw out the linkage, that by the sounds of it was a good thing.

So, on the steering column I have the tab that the linkage bar goes down to the trans, is that what I need?

I wished I was smarter


BP