Dr.Jass
Pastor of Muppets
That transmission is pretty & all, but it ain't worth a damn without a shifter. Once again, this would not go as easily as hoped.
First and foremost, the case/tailshaft housing I used were from a 1968 A-body. An early '68, in fact... so the shifter mount was actually for an Inland. No, you can't put a Hurst on it. "Big deal, just switch it out!" you yell. If only it were that easy. The bolts were stuck so badly that I never disturbed the mount during the rebuild--I just masked it off when I painted it. Now it was in the car, and still schtuck güt. Out came the cutoff wheel, chisel, hammer, and prayer. It worked.
The next wrong part on hand was the Super Shifter I, which turned out to be for an E-body (I guess we know where that will go). I started digging through my stash of shifters, and didn't have one. I found one with the right A-body operating levers still bolted to a flanged-output A-body trans I bought for $100 at Jefferson. Much to my chagrin, it was rusted solid. After not-significant soak time, I still had to put it in a vise and literally beat the mechanism out of the case.
Further disassembly required prying some of those pieces apart... but I finally had it completely apart, ready to be cleaned and rebuilt.
There would be another challenge inside. Apparently the last user of this shifter was a retarded silverback gorilla. So much for the overstop bolts.
I had to pry apart the shifter case to remove the side panel for access. After that, a wee bit of grinding... and problem solved.
Since I was working alone, I did not document the reassembly process. I bolted the mechanism to the sorta-right shifter mount scapped from one of Stretch's overdrives, already in place on the transmission. Then I grabbed the too-nice-for-this-car OE A-body Hurst handle graciously donated to this project by restoman (thank you yet again!) and slipped the boot on it before bolting it to the shifter. I threaded on the OE-style white knob and installed the boot. Now we've got a proper-looking office, other than the erupted bench seat.
Shifter in the 1st/3rd-gear position:
And then in the 2nd/4th-gear location:
The shifter's operation is buttery smooth, as one would expect. There's still no linkage on it, as the reproduction stuff I bought doesn't seem to fit. I know it's the right shifter and the F-body mount is very, very close to the A-body one, but no matter the orientation it binds. I have some early A-body linkage that seems like it'll work, but I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy new linkage from Brewer's. The gold-irridited, plastic-bushed (!) stuff sold by PG Classic and others is not worth the effort, at least not for the A-bodies. Skip it. The rods only work with the bushings provided, as do the transmission levers. The bushings do not interchange with Hurst parts, either, so once they're beat--and that won't take long, judging by their feel--you're on your own. You were warned. I have a set of that stuff for my Challenger, too, and another set for Stretch's Valiant shifter. All 3 sets will likely end up on eBay, whether the Challenger stuff fits or not. The Brewer stuff appears to be right.
It's starting to look like an actual car now!
First and foremost, the case/tailshaft housing I used were from a 1968 A-body. An early '68, in fact... so the shifter mount was actually for an Inland. No, you can't put a Hurst on it. "Big deal, just switch it out!" you yell. If only it were that easy. The bolts were stuck so badly that I never disturbed the mount during the rebuild--I just masked it off when I painted it. Now it was in the car, and still schtuck güt. Out came the cutoff wheel, chisel, hammer, and prayer. It worked.
The next wrong part on hand was the Super Shifter I, which turned out to be for an E-body (I guess we know where that will go). I started digging through my stash of shifters, and didn't have one. I found one with the right A-body operating levers still bolted to a flanged-output A-body trans I bought for $100 at Jefferson. Much to my chagrin, it was rusted solid. After not-significant soak time, I still had to put it in a vise and literally beat the mechanism out of the case.
Further disassembly required prying some of those pieces apart... but I finally had it completely apart, ready to be cleaned and rebuilt.
There would be another challenge inside. Apparently the last user of this shifter was a retarded silverback gorilla. So much for the overstop bolts.
I had to pry apart the shifter case to remove the side panel for access. After that, a wee bit of grinding... and problem solved.
Since I was working alone, I did not document the reassembly process. I bolted the mechanism to the sorta-right shifter mount scapped from one of Stretch's overdrives, already in place on the transmission. Then I grabbed the too-nice-for-this-car OE A-body Hurst handle graciously donated to this project by restoman (thank you yet again!) and slipped the boot on it before bolting it to the shifter. I threaded on the OE-style white knob and installed the boot. Now we've got a proper-looking office, other than the erupted bench seat.
Shifter in the 1st/3rd-gear position:
And then in the 2nd/4th-gear location:
The shifter's operation is buttery smooth, as one would expect. There's still no linkage on it, as the reproduction stuff I bought doesn't seem to fit. I know it's the right shifter and the F-body mount is very, very close to the A-body one, but no matter the orientation it binds. I have some early A-body linkage that seems like it'll work, but I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy new linkage from Brewer's. The gold-irridited, plastic-bushed (!) stuff sold by PG Classic and others is not worth the effort, at least not for the A-bodies. Skip it. The rods only work with the bushings provided, as do the transmission levers. The bushings do not interchange with Hurst parts, either, so once they're beat--and that won't take long, judging by their feel--you're on your own. You were warned. I have a set of that stuff for my Challenger, too, and another set for Stretch's Valiant shifter. All 3 sets will likely end up on eBay, whether the Challenger stuff fits or not. The Brewer stuff appears to be right.
It's starting to look like an actual car now!
Comparing the handle-lockout Super Shifter III to one of my original Super Shifters (just push down to engage reverse, no ugly handle), the hangers are identical below the shifter body. This is good news, since I'd mocked up the III on a transmission to make sure I had the goods, which I do.
In Hurst's defense, the angles of the "keys" on the levers did change in '77 (the above transmission is a '75) so I can't say for a fact this would work on all the OD transmissions. I plan to use earlier parts anyhow, including a non-interlock side cover. You'll understand why I'm taking this route with the Imperial instead of the overdrive kit once you see that one mocked up. I'll do that once I have all the parts, just so y'all can see it: Multiple bends in each rod, crazy offset levers, etc. I like the straight-line, direct-as-possible arrangement much better just for the aesthetics, but I'm sure operation will be considerably more precise. 
Anyhoo, once that last prick was gone I could take off the trim piece. I was finally down to where I needed to be, with the heater controls just sorta resting where the ashtray once was:
Knowing there was no right way to repair the tiny machine threads in pot metal, I found a small sheetmetal screw, about the size of the ones used to retain hood-pin cables. 'Twas a bit larger diameter and much-coarser, more-defined threads so it looked good for the job. I took the tensioner plate over to the vise to put an upward bend in it between the divot and the tension-screw hole, and was genuinely surprised at how hard that little bugger was to bend. Bend it I did, and the plan worked... the adjuster is now tighter than my brother's spending in the presence of either ex-wife.
