FOM - floor shift

[Guest]

I'll be posting two questions today- this one concerns my '64 Challenger. I have FLight-O-Matic, shift on the column. Can the FOM be set up for floor shift with the same parts used on the 63-64 Power Shift cars? And if not that, after market parts?

[buddymander]

Oh, hey , Leon, I've been wondering how much better your car handles with that 1 1/4" bar on the front.

[geojerry]

I am also considering doing this on my 63 GT Hawk. Will the same parts work for both our cars ?

[Kurt]

Don't think powershift parts will work, some one will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure. As for aftermarket, I have a hurst universal "Indy Matic" on my FOM. It works OK, not great, but it does work. The linkage will only work with the shift pattern backwards. In other words, the shift pattern is RLDNP. I think I have come up with a homemade solution, to make this shifter work, with the right shift pattern, PNDLR, just have not tried it yet.

66 Commander R1 Clone
51 Commander 4dr

[Rerun]

There are a few issues here. The shift pattern is one. Since the Powershift is PRND21, and the FOM is PNDLR, the indicator would be wrong. Of course, one could fabricate a new indicator to put in the bezel.

More importantly, the detents, which are in the floor shift mechanism, would also be wrong. There would be no protection against accidentally shifting into R when you were attempting to shift to L. You may be able to modify the unit to add a detent.

The arm at the end of the manual selector shaft is at a different angle on the FOM. This would cause a geometry issue with the floor shift unit. Again, you could make an adapter plate to correct this.

Bottom line, it could be done, but it's certainly not a "bolt on" swap.


Jim Bradley
Lewistown PA
'78 Avanti II

[geojerry]

Thanks for this info. The column shift will stay as is on the GT Hawk.

[Guest]

ok- it can't be done. Thanks to all for the info.

Buddymander- I wish I know if the sway bar helped. The car is sitting in the same spot as when I put the bar on. When I parked the car there it was running great. Then it had to sit there all winter (last year), cause I was going thru a divorce and the old lady really threw me some hard punches. Where it sat in the driveway one side of the car was under some cedar trees and the acid from the shedding needles and rain water totally rusted out the bottom of both doors on that side. This summer I fixed both doors and got them back on, but I switched gears to try and finish my long suffering GT Hawk. One thing I did do was get those front drums off and machine down that outside corner- I think they will clear the sway bar when and if the car hits the road again.