Pushbutton Shifter Mods

When the temps hit 100*, I knock off work on the body and retreat to the air conditioned part of my shop to play with the small projects still waiting to be accomplished. The one I’ve been spending the most time on recently is the modification of the stock ’56 shifter from the 2-speed PowerFlite, to a 3-speed TorqueFlite with a Park handle,that operates with only one cable like the ’66 and later shifters used.
I’ve completed a prototype of the buttons and a lever mockup for the Park selector. Though I’ve not yet combined the two I’ll post some pictures so you can see what’s been done so far.

 

The shifter mechanism is from a ’64 that was modified by removing the existing Park lever assembly and cutting off the shafts so it will slide into the ’56 dash. There wasn’t enough dash space to use the vertical operating Park lever, so removing it was no big deal. The fact that it operated a second cable…the one that needs to be eliminated so I can use a later aluminum 727...meant it could not be easily integrated into the Fury.

First I designed the new button configurations, some of which you can see in the photo. I ended up remaking several buttons while proving out their function and appearance, so was glad I ordered extra material.  I used clear ½” Lexan, and it does a decent job of transmitting light from the side to illuminate the buttons. The only thing I dislike is not having found a source for green Lexan so it would look more like the OEM PowerFlite lighting.

The button setup works fine, but unfortunately I had to swap the N and R buttons from the factory locations, as the button length was too short to make the transition without interference. I might have to remake a couple of the buttons to make them align better, and all will need the ends polished and the brass sleeves dimpled to hold them in place. I still wish I could have found stainless tubing that size as it would look closer to stock. However, since the Fury used a lot of unique gold trim, it might make these parts less noticeable.

 

The last challenge I face with the buttons is finding someone to engrave the letters and numbers in the ends. The biggest trophy shop around said they wouldn’t attempt it as they had no way to mount the parts in their machine, but they referred me to a place in another town that still does some hand engraving. I tried engraving some samples with a Dremel, but they don’t look professional, so I hope I don’t have to resort to that option. If I could find a set of steel stamps for a reasonable price, they could probably be heated enough to melt the imprint into the Lexan.

So far, I’m pleased with how the park lever operates. I salvaged the spring from the ’64 assembly and used the original design to load and retain the lever into the park position and in the off position. The last remaining feature of the selector panel left to design is the pawl that will operate the linkage. Then comes the bell crank that will transfer the rather short linkage movement to the longer stroke required of the shift cable. It will also have to be adjustable to assure the proper gear is engaged when a button is selected. Once the pawl is designed, I'll rebuild the entire assembly to a tighter tolerance and make a trim box to cover the parts for neatness. An attractive cover for the park lever is also on the list of to-do's, but I'll probably just have an aluminum or brass plate engraved and bond it to the lever handle.

 

All in all, it’s been an interesting learning moment.