What kind of automatic shifter should I buy?

I've got that red tci shifter....no bull...it just plain works

where is the best place to get those dirt car shiifters

Speedway Motors

heres a deal on some.... http://www.speedwaymotors.com/Garage-Sale-Single-Lever-Shifters,45089.html

jegs has em cheap...they are for a power glide but will work for anything with slite modification

what keeps you from slamming P with those shifters?

BUILD YER OWN! Go find an old NP203 transfer case shifter, it has no detents, but the lever is spring loaded to one side. Little bit of threaded rod and a couple of small heim joints and cut your own gate plate. No cable to F up, make yur pattern however you want and 100% adjustable. Rock solid reliable.

doctordick said:

BUILD YER OWN! Go find an old NP203 transfer case shifter, it has no detents, but the lever is spring loaded to one side. Little bit of threaded rod and a couple of small heim joints and cut your own gate plate. No cable to F up, make yur pattern however you want and 100% adjustable. Rock solid reliable.

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I thought I had always made my own shifters because I'm cheap, turns out it's because I wanted reliability. Yeah, that's it.
**** a cable and detentsin the shifter and ****. Just make sure the shifter has a stiff action (Stiff action, sounds like red light district talk) and if needed put another detent spring loaded deal on the rooster cog in the trans (the deal with the roller that makes the gear detents). Put 2 on and rock out. You can feel the gears and I've never ever ever hit park when I was trying for reverse...that I can remember.

Most trans have an extra long throw to get to park.

on my 700r4 I mounted teh shifter where I could easily shift R-1 when strapped in, but I had to push to park with my finger tips. The throw from reverse to park was enought that it wasnt an issue.

blacksheep10 said:

I thought I had always made my own shifters because I'm cheap, turns out it's because I wanted reliability. Yeah, that's it.
**** a cable and detentsin the shifter and ****. Just make sure the shifter has a stiff action (Stiff action, sounds like red light district talk) and if needed put another detent spring loaded deal on the rooster cog in the trans (the deal with the roller that makes the gear detents). Put 2 on and rock out. You can feel the gears and I've never ever ever hit park when I was trying for reverse...that I can remember.

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AND I'M CHEAP! But I really do hate cables. ;D ;D

blacksheep10 said:

I thought I had always made my own shifters because I'm cheap, turns out it's because I wanted reliability. Yeah, that's it.
**** a cable and detentsin the shifter and ****. Just make sure the shifter has a stiff action (Stiff action, sounds like red light district talk) and if needed put another detent spring loaded deal on the rooster cog in the trans (the deal with the roller that makes the gear detents). Put 2 on and rock out. You can feel the gears and I've never ever ever hit park when I was trying for reverse...that I can remember.

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Tell me more about these home brew shifters.

Any pics of the 203 shifter?

What you mean by "put 2 on"? 2 springs?

I'd be interested in seeing this too. I'm tired of my cable shifter. Any pics of how the linkage runs would be good too.

Here you go. I cut my gate from sheet metal with a nibbler, one of these days I'll have someone machine a nice one from aluminum. I used a piece of 1/2 tubing over the allthread rod to prevent flexing. Notice that the lever on the trans is upside down, that puts P in the normal location and gives the rod a straight shot. Slot the holes on your gate and shifter mounting bolts for adjustment, you'll never get the rod the perfect length. You can change the distance between gears by moving the shifter end of the rod up or down. I just used the small hole that's already there and that worked well. I used crimp style locknuts on 1/4-20 bolts and put the outside nut on backwards, crimp in, to act like misalignment spacers. Put whatever detents you want in your gate and just push the lever sideways to pass the detent. These shifters are found on solid front axle 1/2 ton blazers and pickups. They just have one notch in the gate, push sideways for low range. The spring Kelly is talking about is inside the trans. In a 700, it's flat steel with a little roller on the end that rides on the rooster gear (never heard that before, but that's a good description) . If you want more tension, cut the roller off of another spring and lay it on top of the original. Mine definately didn't need it. Very positive feel. I had the shifter laying around in the scrap pile and stole the heims from P so I got maybe $5 in this whole deal and this booty fab / farmer tech shifter is THE BEST.

have you had problems with this setup "shifting itself", like in a situation where the cab (where the shifter is mounted) moves slightly more than the frame/tranny. say you hit hard on something or flex it out where things twist and might make it shift half way out of a gear?

im asking because i am thinking about doing a setup like this, but im not solid mounted....in a jeep

I haven't had a problem, but I'm all solid mounted and really haven't hammered on it since I put this shifter together. I've twisted 'er up a few times but haven't gotten real stupid ...yet. I guess if that is a concern it could be mounted directly on the tranny. The arm on the bottom of the shifter is offset 2-3 inches. I think you could probably fab up something to come off the adaptor bolts on the rear of the transmission or maybe off of the t-case mounting bolts. I think the detents in the transmission are tight enough and since the shift lever is free to move (unless it's up against a detent in your gate) this won't be an issue.

First off Thanks for the pics
Didn't the 203's have 2 levers out the bottom?
I assume you just removed one?

Nice right up! Nice idea on turning the nuts around to act as misalignment spacers, so simple yet overlooked!

Just one lever on the bottom of this shifter, I'm pretty sure it's for a 203 but I could be mistaken. Like I said, it came out of the junk pile :****:

because of the self shifting concern I normally t-case mount it. I make sure the shifter can move freely enough but the trans is stiff.
When you pull the pan, there is a rooster comb (deal that has bumps on it) on the shifter shaft, and a flat spring with a roller on the end that goes over each bump to make your detents. I use 2 of them to stiffen the spring. I generally just use flat plate and 2 pieces of angle for a shifter, but the 203 idea is a great idea.

I'm pretty sure that is a 203 shifter, am I right?

Looks like a 241 floor mounted shifter to me. The 203 is a funny looking box with 2 shifters out the bottom and one out the top, mounts to the range box on the case and has a chrome top cover and a flat chrome stick bolted to the stub that sticks out of the top of the shifter with 2 3/8" bolts.