Saginaw 4 Speed Shifter Question

[phraza]

Hi all,

Did a search and couldn't find exactly what I was after.

Just purchased a 64 c10 with a 350 in it, along with a 4 speed on the floor saginaw.

It's pretty horrible to shift especially to get in to reverse/first. It has a B&M handle on it, but pretty sure it's not a B&M shifter (looks tacked on).



I'm looking at getting a new shifter and linkage, and looking at something like this hurst one: https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...3780/overview/

Does anyone here have a saginaw 4 speed with a hurst shifter? And which one?

I'm down in New Zealand, so need to be sure before getting one shipped in (or before I visit the States very soon to make sure I get the right one). Will it be best to get the tranny numbers and double check with hurst direct?

Cheers

Fraser

[Palf70Step]

That is supposed to be a pretty good shifter. I have a similar on on my 3speed saginwa. The one on your truck probably a Mr Gasket or a similar no-name one. They tende3d to get really sloppy over time.

Any of them that tend to bend to clear the sheat will not be a solid one for racing purposes though, as if we would ever race our trucks

[notsolo]

Is your shifter loose? or is it not smooth shifting wise? I took my shifter off and disassembled all that would come apart and cleaned and lubed. Difference is night and day.

[Wingnut Way]

Hurst 4 speed on Saginaw to a sbc on my 63. Been running it for years and love it. On vacation I could look at part #s next week probably.

[phraza]

Originally Posted by notsolo

Is your shifter loose? or is it not smooth shifting wise? I took my shifter off and disassembled all that would come apart and cleaned and lubed. Difference is night and day.

It's just not smooth, and hard to actually push it in to reverse/first. Maybe I'll try this method first to see if that fixes it (I'm all for fixing something before paying for a new part). Cheers heaps

[phraza]

Originally Posted by Wingnut Way

Hurst 4 speed on Saginaw to a sbc on my 63. Been running it for years and love it. On vacation I could look at part #s next week probably.

Awesome, love the shift knob! Out of interest, is that in first gear? (Just trying to get an idea on how the shifter sits when I'm in the car - as you can see mine is bloody low haha)

Cheers!

[phraza]

Originally Posted by Palf70Step

That is supposed to be a pretty good shifter. I have a similar on on my 3speed saginwa. The one on your truck probably a Mr Gasket or a similar no-name one. They tende3d to get really sloppy over time.

Any of them that tend to bend to clear the sheat will not be a solid one for racing purposes though, as if we would ever race our trucks

Yea I think mine is just an average shifter that hasn't had any love recently, got it shifting quite quick the other day though haha

[Wingnut Way]

Yea that's first

[phraza]

Originally Posted by Wingnut Way

Yea that's first

Cool thanks, looks like a good position. Looks like the one I'm looking at too

[Wingnut Way]

So I bought a Hurst Indy shifter for a 4 speed Saginaw which I don't have the part number for, made a box, made a z or s shaped piece that moves it forward 2.5 inches and up 5 inches. The up five I measured from the top bolt of the original shifter housing to the bottom bolt of where it is now. I ran the short little Indy shifter with like that for a while but I still wanted it higher. So I bought a Hurst #8620 lever. Thinking that I could get rid of my little s or z piece I made. But it still hit the seat with out the homemade piece so I had to run it also. I am verry happy where it sits. It feels right. I made the box so that the boot would cover up the homemade piece. I had my seat RE done before I did shift linkag, if I had to do it all over again I would have lowered the seat frame and cut a notch in the bottom of the seat in an arch. Them had it RE done. Hope this helps.


I have yet to find or see a shift arm for a four speed in are c10s that are just bolt in and land where I consider the area they should be in with a bench seat.

[Blu64c10]

I swapped a Saginaw 4 speed in a little over a year ago. I used the Hurst bench seat style shifter. I believe they make two, one a two piece style which the shifter handle bolts to the actual shifter mechanism and the other a 1 piece style where the shifter handle is one with the shifter mechanism.





I used the later of the two styles mainly because I found a used one cheap here on the forum. Upon installing the shifter I came to find out that the shift ball would hit the bench in 2nd and 4th gear. To alleviate this I disable the shifter and removed the handled. I ended up adding I believe 2.5" to the handled allowing the shifter ball to just clear the bench seat. Reassembling the shifter was a bit of a task but as with anything there are YouTube videos which help with the processes. The ball is still pretty close to the bench but is comfortable to shift.

[phraza]

Originally Posted by Blu64c10

I swapped a Saginaw 4 speed in a little over a year ago. I used the Hurst bench seat style shifter. I believe they make two, one a two piece style which the shifter handle bolts to the actual shifter mechanism and the other a 1 piece style where the shifter handle is one with the shifter mechanism.

I used the later of the two styles mainly because I found a used one cheap here on the forum. Upon installing the shifter I came to find out that the shift ball would hit the bench in 2nd and 4th gear. To alleviate this I disable the shifter and removed the handled. I ended up adding I believe 2.5" to the handled allowing the shifter ball to just clear the bench seat. Reassembling the shifter was a bit of a task but as with anything there are YouTube videos which help with the processes. The ball is still pretty close to the bench but is comfortable to shift.

Mate, thanks for that! Yea, I googled a few of the c10 bench shifters and they look quite close to the bench seat. That mod looks pretty straight forward to do, loving your welds too haha.

I guess I'll try clean up the linkage first to see if that fixes it, but still my shifter is so low it's uncomfortable to drive, so i'll probably end up getting a new one anyway. The Bench Seat one does look more comfortable, and I guess when I install it, I see how it fits with my seat.

[Blu64c10]

It should also be noted that this was done on a high hump truck, the horizontal portion of the shift lever comes pretty closer to the lower side of the hump cover. Also disassembling of the shifter mechanism allowed me to cleanup and re-grease all of the inner workings of the shifter.