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**mr48chev** · 02-01-2009, 03:23 PM

I haven't done it but I don't think it would be difficult to do. There is plenty of lateral movement as the arms on the bottom of the column swing through a pretty good arc when you go between first and reverse or second and third. I think the 54 pickups with Automatics had a shifter that wasn't far removed from the column shifters for three speeds.
Looks like a sneaky way to put in an automatic.

The big thing will be getting the lever on the shift rod out of the trans in sync with the lever on the column. One of the goodie vendors used to make and sell a lever for the trans that was adjustable both in location and in travel of the shift rod but a bit of junk yard hunting would probably produce a lever that would suffice.

02-01-2009, 03:23 PM	#5
mr48chev Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Toppenish, WA Posts: 15,820	Re: steering column question. I haven't done it but I don't think it would be difficult to do. There is plenty of lateral movement as the arms on the bottom of the column swing through a pretty good arc when you go between first and reverse or second and third. I think the 54 pickups with Automatics had a shifter that wasn't far removed from the column shifters for three speeds. Looks like a sneaky way to put in an automatic. The big thing will be getting the lever on the shift rod out of the trans in sync with the lever on the column. One of the goodie vendors used to make and sell a lever for the trans that was adjustable both in location and in travel of the shift rod but a bit of junk yard hunting would probably produce a lever that would suffice.