Gonna bump ya back to the top. By now you probably got it figured out or did how you thought it should be. If so, what did you do? I was wondering if they weren't necessarily shims but maybe somehow protect the lens by adding support or dampening?

 

I appreciate the reply. Unfortunately I haven't figured it out yet and several other projects took me away from this for a while. However, my plan is to use some nylon washers as shims to position everything as I think they should be. This will take some trial and error as I will probably need to modify the thickness of the washers to put all the parts at the correct height relative to each. I will post again when I think I have this figured out.

 

This is an update to the assembly of my 64 Galaxie XL shift indicator. I did my best to assemble the indicator assembly in the spirit of the exploded view in the shop manual. I used 1/4" ID o-rings on each lens indicator post between the lens and part 78052 to create a space for the sliding indicator. Then I used a couple of thin nylon washers on the back side of the lens posts that sit under the spring retainers (376754-S) that holds the indicator assembly together. Everything is tight and it looks pretty good.

Now I have another question. My car is equipped with the Cruise-O-Matic. The shift detent plate in the console seems to have too many positions. See the picture compared to the detent plate shown in the manual. There seems to be an additional deep detent notch just in front of what I think is the correct detent position (marked with ?). This deep notch is not shown in the manual illustration. I am able to shift into all 7 positions but I am unable to adjust the neutral safety switch to allow starting in this position (and still allow starting in neutral and connecting the back up lights in reverse). Does it make sense that the transmission actually has 7 shift positions rather than 6? Any insights are appreciated.

 

I'm working on this right now, and ? is absolutely Park. That's where the detent pops up and locks in place when you have the spring and ball in it.

 

Looks to me that Park should be the very first one, the deeper one and that other one isn't actually any gear at all. Or looking again, maybe that deeper groove is not supposed to be there or it's not the right detent. If your shifter were to go all the way to the deeper one, would your NSS work then, like it's off by that little bit? Although that deep one is a mystery seeing how in the manual it isn't there at all. Is it possible that the deep one there is actually worn that way and should even have that groove? Or Unless that detent isn't the correct one. Hopefully someone that knows and seen the floor shifter parts more than I have will have an answer. You also should be able to check how many gears there is from underneath and move the shifter and see what it says. I am clueless! Overdrive wouldn't have anything to do with that either i don't think. Although I have no idea how overdrive works or anything what so ever.

This one was on ebay and it doesn't have the deep one either but you can see a clean spot where that deep one is on yours. Is there anything that hits or rubs on that every time you like put it in park or something? Someone else will chime in. I'm just thinking it's worn or isn't the correct one. Although I think park should be deeper but the manual clearly shows it is not.

 

I should note that one of the reasons I took this apart originally is because the shifter had a tendency to slip from the position marked "P" to reverse. Also originally, the adjustment must have been such that the shifter couldn't reach the deeper notch. When I set the adjustment during assembly, I used the directions from the manual. Doing that, the shifter can now reach the deeper notch. But is it supposed to? That is the question. I don't yet have this assembled as I decided to send the shifter out for re-chrome. I hope to get back into this by Spring.

 

If it doesn't go in the deep one then it can be knocked into reverse too easily and you don't want that. That is probably what the issue has been all along. Maybe someone used another one from a different car on there for some reason.

My column shift is really bad and i don't leave it idling if I'm not in the car or the wheels aren't blocked.

 

My column shift is really bad and i don't leave it idling if I'm not in the car or the wheels aren't blocked.

... shane ... shame ... shame ...

You know better ...

 

You would think after 40+ yrs I would learn! I was looking around at what the problem is and how to fix and most say column has to come out. But then saw a video of a man with a Tbird and he just pulled the roll pin out, took the shifter out, fixed it and put it back in. I would love if it were that simple but way my luck goes I'd better be prepared to do the hard way and I don't have the umph to do all that anymore!

It was said that 99% of the time it is the shift lever not the detent causing the issue because of wear from riding over the detents for years.

 

I am trying to determine what part 7C451 is. It appears to be a shim, possibly up to 1/4" thick, that acts as a spacer between 78052 and 7C448 to create a gap for the gear indicator to pass under the transparent indicator lens 7A213. There are two plastic L-shaped shims that I removed from the assembly, shown in the photo, but these were mounted under the holes on the opposite side of 7C448 apparently serving no purpose.

Whenever you see a BASIC PART NUMBER in an ILL and it has a black star next to indicates either the part is either not available for service or was deleted from SERVICE PARTS at some point (usually due to low demand).

 

It looks really weird in the manual (and you did a beautiful job restoring the letters and plastic!). Mine had a small spacer between the clear and the black, hard to tell if it was original or not. 7A213, weird gummy spacer, then 7B052. Then through the base plate and help by that stupid circlip that is long gone.

 

Also, if there IS a gap between the two plates, then the shims might just set the height to match the indicator pin so it doesn't rub.

 

Would a detailed PARTS LIST HELP?

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The first detent is PARK and the blocking part behind it is to prevent the car from going into R unintentionally (either accidentally hitting the shift lever or it's jumping out of P due to a worn detent/release button or mis-adjusted linkage/worn parts and/or bushings).

You would then adjust the NSS for proper operation after ensuring the shift linkage is correctly adjusted.

 

Also worth a note maybe. I managed to take it all apart from the top, so I assumed I could bolt it back together from the top. After wasting a few hours on that, I locked the shifter in park, bolted the shifter in place, then jacked it up and tightened the selector from the bottom in about 5 minutes. It's probably possible to do it from the top, but it's a LOT more effort.