Rachet shifter

[N PRGRES]

Dumb question, how do I know if I have one or not?

[kentucky yeti]

A ratchet shifter has spring tension.  You can push it to the right, and it will spring back to its resting position.  Also, you can just bump it from L to 2 to D without engaging the release button on top.

[N PRGRES]

A ratchet shifter has spring tension.  You can push it to the right, and it will spring back to its resting position.  Also, you can just bump it from L to 2 to D without engaging the release button on top.

Thats what I thought.  Mine moves to the right and springs back but it won't let me bump it through the gears

[firebirdparts]

If it moves left and right at all, it's the special shifter.  Obviously things can change in 40 years, but originally these had a slot in the plastic slider plate which is visible.

Clarification is obviously needed and here it comes:
1. Any of these old cars, you can push from 1 to 2 to D to N without pushing any button or any special moving it to unlock any cams.  You just push. The shifter will not stop.
2. The point of this shifter is that WHEN it's pushed to the right, coming from 1 it will stop at 2.  The feature is not moving it, it's stopping it.
3. To continue, WHEN it's pushed the right, coming from 2 it'll stop at 3.

Going down, it does nothing interesting.  You have to push the button to go from D to 2, 2 to 1.  N to D is free for some reason.

You can get an idea of how these detents correspond to button height by looking at the detents.  This is a good picture but the reason we're seeing it is that it's aftermarket and has 4 gears.  Just imagine you're seeing this with 3 gears and it'll have a step missing on the right.



The really deep hole is Park and the button is really tall in Park.  The wide hole is N and D which don't have anything happening between them.  The button is lowest in low gear, and it's also really low between reverse and Park, and that's a pretty wide space there.

[Wallington]

I'm in the middle of uploading pics so here's a few shifter pics to show the differences.

Of course, it may be as easy as seeing if the gear stick moves sideways or not, otherwise if only looking at pics then the large black spring for side movement is a giveaway. The ratchet shifter also looks like the rear of a set of kitchen tongs from the underside. From the top there is a small spring over the shifter stick and pivoting plate that selects gears in the second side detent, springs and ratchets back into place after shift.

The regular shifter can be spotted by angular wire retainer spring under the shifter stick.

Ratchet shifter:

Firebird Rallye shifter rebuild replated (4) by Ben, on Flickr

Rallye ratchet shifter restored 1 (3) by Ben, on Flickr

Rallye ratchet shifter restored 1 (4) by Ben, on Flickr

Rallye ratchet shifter restored 1 (15) by Ben, on Flickr

Rallye shifter parts plated by Ben, on Flickr


Standard shifter:

Firebird shifter 3spd replated3 by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird shifter 3spd replated4 by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird shifter 3spd replated5 by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird shifter 3spd replated6 by Ben, on Flickr

And just for interest, here's my original regular shifter, angular wire retainer clearly seen under the stick, as mentioned. But it now features a custom Neutral Safety Switch from a column-shift Holden as part of the RHD-steering mods. But for anyone else, this also works in relocating the switch and having working back-up lights, headers or not, linkage rods or not.

Firebird original shifter replated 10-19 (6) by Ben, on Flickr

Firebird original shifter replated 10-19 (5) by Ben, on Flickr

And many years later the same idea has been used by Shiftworks to convert my other shifter into a 4-speed for 200-4R trans. A ratchet shifter with this kit wouldn't work, it spaces the gears differently and the ratchet would keep getting stuck between gears and be one short. If there was a second detent available that added an extra space, along with respaced to suit, you could have an operating ratchet 4-speed.

Firebird shifter replated 4spd mod7 by Ben, on Flickr

[FormTA]

Yes, I was going to point out that the shifworks kit eliminates this function.  I did this when I swapped in the 4l
4L60E (700R4).

I really need to add the neutral safety switch to mine. I have tye column set to neutral so if you are not careful you can start the car in gear. It gets worse because you can also start the car without keys 50% of the time too...

[roadking77]

That is the nicest shifter in existence! But I am not surprised
Mine is a bit sluggish in my car, I cleaned and lubed it but I wish I had one that looked that to put in. I have a couple old ones including a ratchet. Gives me some inspiration to clean them up one of these days

[5th T/A]

I am pretty sure the shifter shown is one that Ben has meticulously restored. I think I can safely say that in factory form, even when brand new they didn't look that good.

I seem to recall, (correct me if I am wrong) the lower power cars didn't have the ratcheting option, only the higher power ones. My 1973 TA had a ratcheting shifter while my 1975 TA did not. My 1978 W72 TA also had it. What surprised me is my 1980 TA also had one, even though it had the base 150 HP 301.

[b_hill_86]

Any idea if it would’ve been listed in PHS? I imagine it would on the build sheet. My 77 is a W72 but had a standard shifter before I converted to 4 speed. But I’ve only had the car since 2010 so who knows what happened the previous 33 years

[Wallington]

I wouldn't say restored, just rebuilt and cleaned up, combined the best parts of a few to create good and better shifters. I just had a few replated while at it and a few sticks rechromed, won't do that again. It's more that they make for nice clear detail photos. Having said that I could barely sell them for more the cost price of rusty worn out shifters. No one wants to pay a thing. Two of the three ratchet types I rebuilt were both worn and didn't shift properly, so I fixed that as well. They wear and end up with a stick that leans sideways and rubs on the plastic guide/ steel frame as well. I did a post way back showing where the wear is, how to correct, but long gone again. Still have all the pics.

And these auto shifters wear and crack with the nylon sliding guides anyway, the ratchet type are just worse and often wear at an angle so the centre assembly is actually kicked at a slight angle as it runs back and forth. Something for the 3D printers to offer, replacements yet wider footprint. Even with a little side play the nylon sliders rarely used all the track in the frame opening.

I have more pics and even video showing the operation, but so do you guys. Never really found any pattern in the models they were in, high power, low power, sports options, base models. Also never saw reference to them specifically in options, buildsheet, order forms, paperwork, nothing. Many owners didn't even know they had one, the rest wonder why the slider insert is oval shaped. That was lazy by GM, simple strip of plastic.

Here's a couple of the videos I took, if they upload. Very dodgy, but a guy was asking how they operated. Be aware that it's hard to operate a shifter without the knob and without the frame fastened down.

TH350 ratchet shifter restored (1) by Ben, on Flickr

TH350 ratchet shifter restored (3) by Ben, on Flickr

TH350 ratchet shifter restored (2) by Ben, on Flickr

[b_hill_86]

Is that spring in the last pic indicative of a ratchet shifter only? My 77s, I’ve since sold, didn’t seem to move side to side but I always wondered if it was just jammed up or something. I have another auto shifter that doesn’t seem to move to the side but I’ve only ever tried on the bench. I don’t really know what visual differences there are to look for if I were to check again.

[roadking77]

I think the spring you see is for the ratchet shifter only. I am pretty sure the standard one does not have that. That is what allows the side to side motion of the shifter handle.

[Wallington]

That's right, ratchet only has the spring at the base, and small rotating ratcheting collar and spring sitting on the very top side at base of gear stick. I added pics to show this of about 4 different shifters further up.

I'd already started to reply before Dave mentioned his shifter moves sideways so no further replies were needed.

[b_hill_86]

Ok I’ll have a look. Pretty sure the extra I have is standard

[Wallington]

All sorted Dave? Just seized-up or dry or worn?

[N PRGRES]

I haven't had a chance to look at it yet.  Its not the standard, I am pretty sure, as it freely moves to the side and springs back, however it doesn't more forward when it's slid to the right.  Not sure i'll tinker with it till winter, it's already been down too long.  THannks for the info!

[FormTA]

For what it's worth both of my 301 auto 1979 cars (TA and Formula have the ratchet shifter. That's almost as low of a hp car you could get. Still a TA and Formula though.