Hosed up shifter linkage assembly

[moparmaniac59]

I have had a time with my shifter linkage in my Challenger, auto, slapstick. It was always off a little, but now that I have a manual valve body it has been a real pain in the butt. I know how to adjust it and there just seems to be no middle ground. If I adjust it to go into PARK, then it won't go fully into LOW. if I adjust it to go into LOW, it won't fully go into PARK. I believe there is just too much slop in the entire assembly. I replaced one of the nylon bushings (which was cracked) and ordered another from R/T Specialties. One of the problem areas is that the adjustable lock swivel has a ton of play. I have thought of welding up & redrilling the wallered out hole in the torque shaft assembly. I am trying to eliminate the combined play in the entire linkage. Does anyone know if any of these linkage parts can be purchased new?? Any suggestions? My next step is to just go with a B & M shifter, but I am thinking it might use some of the stock shifter parts?? Thoughts? Ideas??

                                                Matt B.

[Bullitt-]

I can see how if the lower rod, the one with the swivel, were to short would cause this problem..
Could a bushing be made to take up the slack & then straighten the rod to make it effectively longer.

[moparmaniac59]

The lower rod isn't the problem. The length can be adjusted (lengthened or shortened) via the adjustable swivel. The problem (one of them) is the adjustable swivel is pinned to the torque shaft assy and the hole it goes thru is extremly worn out. Along with worn bushings, it creates a ton of slop. I think one of the solutions would be to weld up and redrill to proper size the hole in the torque shaft for the swivel. Also replacing all of the bushings. There is also a bushing on the shifter assy which is different than the ones on the torque shaft. I've not seen that particular bushing available from R/T Specialties. Anybody ever freshen up their shifter linkage?? Did you have to do any weld repair?

                                                Matt B.

[tactransman]

Matt,if you can't tighten the sloppy area's up and get it right,you can take the shifter lever off of the transmission and cut a little piece out of it,reweld it to shorten it. That will make the ratio quicker and allow you to have park and low.

[moparmaniac59]

Thanks for that suggestion Terry. I'll keep that in mind as I've not heard or thought of doing that. The first thing I am going to fix is the extremely sloppy swivel. I guess 30 plus years of shifting has just worn out the linkage parts!!


                                                Matt B.

[moparmaniac59]

Here's a picture from my 1974 Dodge service manual of the console shifter linkage.