Hi everyone - I'm new to this board. I've been a Maverick owner for a long time. The one I have was inheirited and I've had it for a long time. It's a 1970 with a 170 I6. (I don't know if they offered the 302 that year.) It's sat for some years and my son and I are working to get it road-ready again. Since he's a new driver, I'm not too up on the idea of putting a 302 in it right now. That would be some work and then I'd probably keep it for myself to play with! Anyway, it's has the stock 3-speed shifter on the column and I'd like to convert it to the floor. What brand of floor shifter would work for this? Are there any tricks to doing this mod? Thanks, Ron C
Most major companies like Hurst and B&M ( I'm partial to Hurst myself) make floor shifters for your car. Converting it is pretty simple and straight foward. Only thing is the locking column. Unless yours is an early 70 with the ignition under the dash instead of on the column, the car has to be in reverse to remove the key. The kit should come with a rod to connect to the reverse/1st shifting arm to perform this task. If not, it is pretty easy to make a small bracket to secure the arm in the reverse position.
Thanks for your input. I've looked at a couple of shifters from Hurst, and may go with the Indy SSA. As far as the install goes, I'm most concerned about cutting the hole in the tunnel in the right place. And how to cut the hole. The key ignition is on the column. Do I lock the existing linkage in the reverse position, or is the extra bracket to move that linkage also when going into reverse?
Use the rod if you got it because the back up lights will operate properly. Way back in 72 when I converted mine to floor shift, I just made a small bracket to permanately keep the shift arm in reverse, then bought a switch to mount on the shifter for the lights.
Ron C: I used a '67 Mustang shifter in my '69.5. My ignition is on the dash, no lockout, but the shifter fits well, is small enough to be unobtrusive and the bezel lights up well. The only rub is that the handle is bent back just enough so that it will not go into 1st gear with the bench seat. If you have buckets, no problem. This is a rod-type shifter, and the hole in the tunnel is small. Hope this helps, Earl
Tech article Ya know, this seems to be a very common mod, and there seems to be lots of knowledge about it floating around. I hope to do the swap, and I know Maverick Matt has something similiar in mind. I just think it would be very helpful if the guys with the know-how could get together and create a how-to with common questions and problems. Any pics would be great too. How bout a vote?
I just looked at the ol' Chilton's manual and it says that a floor shifter was an option 71 - 77. It doesn't say that it was specific to any certain engine. That gets me to wondering: In anyone's experience, what kind of odds would one have in finding a stock one? The manual has a nice exploded view of the floor shifter ....including a linkage that hooks up to the steering column, I suppose to do the lock in reverse gear. Just my opinion, a how-to article would be nice. Hmmm....now about the seat thing. How do I avoid having interference problems with the shifter rod and a bench seat?
Two ways...get an upholsterer to put a divit in the seat to let the shifter handle go back far enough, and still look good, or get the stock shifter. It has a straight handle and should be fine. The mustang shifter has a bend in the handle, and hits the seat in low gear. Still looks better than the stock Mav shifter, IMHO. Earl
I went to a salvage yard in the area the weekend before last, and picked up a floor shifter in a later model Mav than mine. I hope I haven't made a mistake in getting it but the price was hard to pass on. The shifter was obviously not stock, and the guy who pulled it out of the car couldn't identify it. I got nervous when we found that it was bolted to the floor and not the tranny. Not sure what it's original application was, The amazing thing is that it is actually a 4-speed shifter hooked up on a 3-speed tranny!! Some one had welded two of the slider things together so there wouldn't be the extra gate. I worked it in the car and it felt good. Last weekend I started checking into installing it and found that I didn't think to also get the bars that connect to the shafts coming out of the tranny. The column shift linkage rods connect to bars that go down, and the floor shifter needs to connect to bars that go up in order to move them the right direction. All this is new to me....I've never messed with shifters before. Guess I'll go back to the salvage yard this weekend and see if I can get the missing parts. At least it will be an opportunity to pick up a couple of other misc. parts. They had 6 - 8 Mavs there of various years. All had 6's in them but one that was gutted. There were lots of tail lights and some grills. Didn't see any gas caps. I'm still not real confident in doing this conversion, so any advise is appreciated. Should I go ahead and try hooking up this shifter since I know it was hooked up in a Mav before?
