Shift linkage, weird!

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Oilslickwillie

Senior Member
Crawled under my 1955 Ford Fairlane to check the shift linkage. The car has a 302 in it with a C4 ******. The shifter on the steering wheel is pretty sloppy and hard to tell which gear you are in. From under the hood I noticed the shift rod is pretty sloppy. From underneath I can grab it and it slops side to side, may be part of the problem. This shift rod has several bends in it for some reason.
Here is the weird part. There is another lever on the ****** next to the one the shift rod attaches to. This lever is separate than the one that has the shift rod attached. This other lever has a rod about 3/8" in diameter that goes up to the card throttle. If you press down on the gas pedal, that opens the butterfly on carb. This rod is attached to the same butterfly lever but can't tell what it is for, doesn't do anything that I can tell. In other words, an extra rod from ****** to carb. Can someone tell me what this rod is for? Also, noticed no neutral safety switch. Doesn't the NSS attach to the C4 ******. Don't see one and not sure how to install one or the wiring. I'm assuming one wire to ignition switch, other to ground. Sorry this is so long, but I'm old and don't remember a lot I guess. Any help is appreciated.
 
The other rod you mentioned may be the kickdown rod for the "passing" gear.

The neutral safety switch is mounted on the C4 and straddles the shift lever on the side. They look like this. Make sure you get one that matches the year of your trans as there are some subtle differences between the years. There are four wires on the switch, Two are for the ignition, the other two for back up lights. I can't remember which is which, but when you get to that point I will look at my car and let you know. You can get them most anywhere. I recently had to replace mine and got it off ebay.

If you can post a picture of what you have it can help us. Especially the connections at the transmission.

Oilslickwillie said:
Crawled under my 1955 Ford Fairlane to check the shift linkage. The car has a 302 in it with a C4 ******. The shifter on the steering wheel is pretty sloppy and hard to tell which gear you are in. From under the hood I noticed the shift rod is pretty sloppy. From underneath I can grab it and it slops side to side, may be part of the problem. This shift rod has several bends in it for some reason.
Here is the weird part. There is another lever on the ****** next to the one the shift rod attaches to. This lever is separate than the one that has the shift rod attached. This other lever has a rod about 3/8" in diameter that goes up to the card throttle. If you press down on the gas pedal, that opens the butterfly on carb. This rod is attached to the same butterfly lever but can't tell what it is for, doesn't do anything that I can tell. In other words, an extra rod from ****** to carb. Can someone tell me what this rod is for? Also, noticed no neutral safety switch. Doesn't the NSS attach to the C4 ******. Don't see one and not sure how to install one or the wiring. I'm assuming one wire to ignition switch, other to ground. Sorry this is so long, but I'm old and don't remember a lot I guess. Any help is appreciated.
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Paul, thanks for your reply. Guess I will have to get under there and try and find what year ****** it is. I know the 302 engine code is above starter. Guess the ****** has some markings to find out year. Got to power wash engine and underneath to find codes. A 77 year old man had car and never cleaned under it and grimy. I will get back to you on the NSS when I can. Need to make a better shifter rod first that is not sloppy.
 
I don't know anything about the 302/C4 combo. But usually, the kick down rod has some specific geometry to the carb linkage. On an original 55 FOM combo, there was a manifold mounted bracket/bellcrank arrangement. It allowed the carb to go to WOT, and the kickdown to work the way the trans wanted. On modern transmissions, I'm more familiar with OT cars.

Depending on what carb you've got, you might go to the manufacturer's web site and look at what they sell as brackets/hook ups for that combination. You might be fine, or you might have another part cobbled together like the shift linkage. Usually, the rod operated transmissions are more forgiving, but more modern TV cable trans can be toast if the cable isn't right.

In putting modern transmissions in 50's cars, I've sometimes had to lengthen or shorten the arm on the transmission to let the original linkage work right. Even then, the shift indicator might be a bit off from the trans dedents.
 
Jeff, the shift linkage would work better than what I have on mine, which is a bad attempt and bad fit. I thought of making one similar with adjustments.
 
Well again we have a major modification, but I will offer that if the car still has the original Ford-o-matic steering column there should be a rubber grommet with a nylon bushing inserted into that gromment that the shift link slips into. The shift link should be held in place with a flatwasher and cotter pin on the back side.
Check that to see if that is where all the slop is.
Originally, the Ford-o-matic transmissions had a passing gear link operated by a bellcrank on the intake manifold. This link is a rod that attaches at the bellcrank on the manifold and runs down to the transmission passing gear shift lever. It has nothing to do with operation of butterflies on the carburetor.
 
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