If you have been following my blog on updating my FIL's 55 Ford Club Sedan you know I am planning to install a floor shift for the car. The transmission is a 55/56 OEM 3 speed with the BW R10 Overdrive. 

I did find a set of brackets that I am told were made for this setup by Hurst. They certainly bolted up correctly and attached the shifter to the transmission seemingly correct. However I have a few questions...

You can tell in this photo that the lever that actuates the OD lockout has too little clearance. Is this the way to orient the lever so that it will work?
 

The shifter is an original Hurst Syncro Loc
 
I removed the dust plate on the bottom and the unit looks pretty clean. When I bolted up the shifter to the bracket it fit well but I could not shift into 1st or Reverse. Also, the shifter arm is only 11"... is this too short? Obviously this is a welded unit and to get a longer arm is that going to be looking for the Holy Grail?

When I attached the shifter it looked like there was no need to flip the arms on the transmission. It seems like you should leave the arms in the down position as shown... why is this? I assume Hurst knows what they are doing... the diagrams I have seen all show the transmission arms UP.
 

The shifter arm needs to be rechromed and I am wondering if I could completely disassemble this unit, clean it, check for wear, lubricate, get the arm chromed, etc. I wonder if that is all worth it though.

Anyone recognize the Hurst bracket that the shifter came with? I bought this on Craigslist and the seller had no idea what it was from. There were some rods in the deal but I knew only one was a Hurst rod... I have no idea what the other ones were from... any ideas?
 
I am wondering if I should just buy a Master Shift unit from Hurst that has the removable arm. Of course, i also need at least one rod and a set of bushings. 

Any other tips or advice?

Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

I can't be a lot of help but generally all the floor shift conversions I had done in the past required the shift arms to be reversed. I had one of these Hurst set ups in a 57 OD but that was in the late 60's and I don't recall much. The two cars I have now with OD trans both have the lockout lever pointed up.

Thanks for the response and the helpful advice. Here are a couple of photos of the interference from the bracket/OD lockout lever.



You can tell by the photos above that the lever was hitting the Hurst Bracket and leaving that small arc of grease. I put the bracket in a vise and carefully nudged it over with the vise to make the bracket widen out a little bit. This gave me about an 1/8" clearance and I am pretty happy with it after bolting everything up it looked pretty good.



The shifter shifted into all positions just fine tonight with 0 play - nothing seemed sloppy at all. I did have one shifter rod from Hurst and kind of mocked it up in the shifter and put it up to an original lever on the case (after flipping it upside down). I know that Hurst made levers to replace the originals but I think these were all flat stock right? Seems like the offset of the original levers would help you keep a straigther rod since the line looks very good. Maybe Hurst uses levers that essentially have a shorter arc because they are smaller?




Daniel Jessup

Lancaster, California

aka "The Hot Rod Reverend"
check out the 1955 Ford Fairlane build at www.hotrodreverend.com

Glad you got it worked out. I now remember having a similar issue when I did the conversion on my truck, it wasn't a Hurst bracket but similar. I just elongated the holes that mount it to the trans so the whole bracket moved over about an 1/8".