The Long Anticipated Shifter

After months of mundane interruptions, including hair curling heat, I finally tore into the the new shifter for Puff.

Thus far, it appears that the method I devised for transposing one shifter location to the other is working.

First, here is the old shifter before I got started. At this point, I had already removed the shift linkage.

I started by cutting a template and bolting it in place where the shifter would go.

Then I welded a couple of temporary braces between the plate and the frame.

Then I could remove the bolts and cut out the old shifter.

I forgot to cut out the template plate for the parts on the face of the disassembled shifter box. I drew in the shape from measurements, cut out the relief and bolted the shifter box on the check the fit.

At this point, I realized that a) I needed some bolts and b) chances were pretty good that the hardware stores might close early on Labor Day, so I skedattled.


When I returned, I made a plate that would become the new shifter mounting plate.

and bolted the entire assembly together, template, shifter and mounting plate, with my new bolts, seen here from the back.

I measured, cut and fit two braces to attach the mounting plate to the frame...

... and welded them into place.

I removed the shifter box...

Cut off the temporary mounting, reassembled the shifter and this is what it looks like now!

What's left is to build the linkage. It will basically be a few lengths of 1/2" tubing connected by U-joints.

The shifter handle is held in place by a split ring. When it's removed, the body should easily fit over the shifter, then the handle is reinstalled.

After playing with the shifter some, it appears that the reverse lockout may be more trouble than it's worth. It requires enough effort to engage that it is very difficult to do with one hand *and* apparently you have to press the release to get *out* of reverse as well.