Floor Shift / Bench seat

[slugish]

posted this before , noone responded. try again. Is there enough room to install a auto. floor shifter with a bench seat.

[bigblock73]

I am sure it could be done, you will just need to mount it a little higher, and have to reach a little more for it.

[shadetree]

I've done it before, in passenger cars. B&M and others market several kits for bench seat vehicles.,

[Srubydo1986]

or you could fab your own shifter arm to reach the spot you want the nob.

[Ivan D.]

I have a regular B&M Megashifter (the truck edition), the way it's mounted right now it looks like it'll clear a bench seat (I have buckets of some kind). If moved slightly more forward and up it will clear a bench for sure, while still being easy to reach and operated. If ya don't want the bulky housing pretty much every ratchet shifter has ya can always use Lokar, they come in like 1500 different shapes and lengths so it's virtually impossible to not find something that works well.

[Jonboy]

If you are looking for a floor shifter, I would suggest Lokar as well. The truck Megashifter has a taller base, and should clear a bench seat as well. I am not overly excited about the ratchet shifters, though. Every one I have had has been a complete PITA to live with.

[benoit454]

Heck yea you can put an auto floor shift in a bench seat truck. We had floor shift 3 speed then 4 speed in a bench seat, and not out in the floor but right in front of the seat on our 76.

Plus most aftermarket auto's have their own plastic console to use, and they have a cable operation, so you can mount the thing on the dash if you wanted to and it still work. No Lie, they sell like 10 ft. cables for them.

Now something like the unimatic or indymatic that uses a rod, to shift that may be different since it kinda mounts on the tailshaft. But for a cable operated auto you can put it anywheres, and as others said make your own console as big as you want, or use the one they come with. Most of them are short so reaching them would require a bend down or lean over, where as the rod operated ones usually are taller sticks/handles. Maybe you can find a long handle and change it, or just get creative.

Also I know on my hurst vmatic 2 shifter you can cut your old linkage bracket, and weld it to the hurst piece, so you can retain the gear selector in the dash, and the reverse lights and neutral safety work just as they did stock.

[Ivan D.]

Originally Posted by benoit454

Now something like the unimatic or indymatic that uses a rod, to shift that may be different since it kinda mounts on the tailshaft. But for a cable operated auto you can put it anywheres, and as others said make your own console as big as you want, or use the one they come with. Most of them are short so reaching them would require a bend down or lean over, where as the rod operated ones usually are taller sticks/handles. Maybe you can find a long handle and change it, or just get creative.

Actually Lokar makes their shifters so you can mount them damn near anywhere on the tranny, it just depends which brackets you choose to use. If it's possible I'd go with a solid rod linkage tho, even if the one the shifter comes with don't work too well you can always fab yerself another one - my Lincoln Towncar (normally column shifted) for a few months already has a floor shifter off a Ford Thunderbird, the shifter's original setup is cable-operated but I just flipped the tranny lever upside down and ran a rod from it to the shifter. Rod was a little tricky to get in the right shape cause the shifter sits right above the tranny yoke and the linkage has to clear the floorboards, the crossmember, and the VSS, but it all worked out perfectly. On a truck the shifter sits right on top of the tranny, so there are hardly any clearance issues at all, you can run whatever linkage you want to. Heck, if it didn't involve so much fabrication I'd run solid linkage even with the B&M truck Megashifter

[slugish]

Thanks to all for all your replies. Very helpfull info. What a great bunch of guys to share all this info. Very limited skills so I depend on this forum a lot. Everybody I ASKE D said there was not enough room to put floor shift with bench seat so I had given up on the idea. Just goes to show how much they know.

[piecesparts]

I mounted a B&M truck Mega-shifter in my 84 and also one in my Son's 86; both with bench seats. They went in easliy and the cables worked out real well. Plenty of clearance and the proper height was easy to achieve.

[Grande Rojo]

I've got a B&M mega shifter for trucks. It's been great with my bench seat.
I am putting a Lokar shifter in my other truck though.

[turbo350]

I put the B&M truck shifter in mine. Its cool if you only ride one passenger in your rig. If you have two passengers it cuts down on leg room. I might put back my column shifter again because of this.

[neverfinished]

I have a B&M Unimatic and there is plenty of room for between it and the seat.

[70c10]

My truck has a regular (not the taller truck version) B&M Megashifter that works ok. I will probably switch over to the taller one eventually. I like these alot!

[piecesparts]

Originally Posted by 70c10

My truck has a regular (not the taller truck version) B&M Megashifter that works ok. I will probably switch over to the taller one eventually. I like these alot!

The taller mega shifter is the regular one with the addition of two brackets under neath for height adjustment and a taller cover.