What did you do with the gear selector lever on the steering column?
and the P-R-N-D-2-1 ?

It would look best to change the column.

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Excuse me, does this smell like chloroform to you?

That's my plan as well. You have to do that to change from power to manual steering anyway, don't you?

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'74 Duster w/ HEI ignition, beat to snot suspension, A904, 8.25" 3.55 SG rear, still being tuned up and gets 17 MPG

Know how they always build a better idiot? That's me

If you're converting auto to manual with a manual floor shift you have a few options:

1) If keeping the same style of steering (manual/power), you can swap the column but must find one from a similar year/sam steering type car.

2) El Cheapo route is to drive the pin out of the selector lever housing on the column and wire the shift tabs out of the way on the column in the engine bay...(not the best way to do it...but might confuse your local car theives for a minute...)

3) If swapping columns and steering type (like you find a floor shift column from a power steering car...and you have a manual steering car)...you gotta either swap the shaft and guts from one column to the other, or buy a column adaptor to make up for the gap... or you could change your steering box,etc...


4) Note, the year does matter in some cases...like my '67 the steering column has a switch at the base to turn on the reverse lights....which will not be present on say a 1973 Dart column....


Another thing to note on the side, the pedal brackets have changed between the years, the middle type (like 1967-ish) is a different 'shape' than the late type (about 1974-1976), the early ones have a 'dish' for the steering column, about 1973 they became 'squarish' with no 'dish for the column, but still supported by 3 bolts to hold the column in place...about 1974 they were squared, but you only have to worry about the 2 retaining bolts beneath the plastic bezel unde the dash...


-D.Idiot

I'm sorry, I should have been more specific. I was referring to the conversion of the transmission, rather than steering...

When you convert the tranny, you have to change the steering column to match there, buddy...

1) Mopar equipped cars with 3 types of columns in the late model era:
A) 3 on the tree
B) Auto on the tree
C) Shifter on the floor model (no 'handle' on the column for shifting, manual tranny or console shift models)


I described what you can do in the previous post...


1) find the right column for your car and just swap it
2) Be cheap and just leave you column intact, drive the hinge pin out with a punch and pull the shifter lever out so it doesn't slap you when driving around since it's not hooked to anything...then wire the selector levers in the engine bay out of the way (not a pretty or nice thing to look at)
3) If you do number 1 be prepared to swap the steering shaft if the donor car has a different steering box than you original... or if you really have a tech manual and are handy, you can swap the guts off your column and put the column shift delete plate on your column (you'll be tearing the whole thing apart at this point).


-D.Idiot

i did the swap from auto to manual and just left the column alone. i didn't have the money to get the right column for the setup.

you don't have to change the column at all when you swap trans, unless you don't want to look at the P-R-N-D-2-1 indicator all the time.

flaming river does sell a column for chrysler cars, but they are pricey.

zedpapa

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1970 dodge dart w/225 /6 bored .040" over, holley 390cfm w/vac. sec., compcams 252s, clifford shorty headers w/2.5" exhaust w/flowmaster, f-body 11" front discs, aluminum A-833OD, 8 1/4 w/3.21 SG
soon to have 5 gears!!!

on my F body the PRND21 is on the cluster not the column, and the manual cars as well as console cars have a sheetmetal cover over the PRND21 , the same flat black as the cluster backing. It attatches with 2 dash cluster type screws.

OK, just kicking around some ireas here- yall can be my sounding board!

I'm thinking that I might try to turn the P-R-N-D-2-1 indicator into a shift light... it's in a pretty good spot for that; but the question is how to set up the wiring? the light itself would be pretty straight forward, but what about the hum-dinger that sends the signal?

Thats a pretty cool idea, or you can do my trick. If you have a 73-76 a body take and hide the shift light behind the "fasten seat belts" thingie on the dash cluster, . A definite way to weird people out too.

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Barret-Jackson: Ruining the car hobby for everyone!

...So did you just buy one of those 'C' cell battery-sized lights aftermarket, and hook it up to a msd box? -curious what turns on the lamp.

btw, thats a damn good idea too!
ever consider scraping away some of that black paint so it is just a dot(whatever shape) rather than a seat belt warning?

Yea, but the seat belt warning just adds to the unsuspecting sleeper effect.

You could get a small light like that but I just hide whatever shift light I can behind the light it's self.

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Barret-Jackson: Ruining the car hobby for everyone!