Getting my column shift to work with so many different parts

[NewToFord]

I have my 347 and c4 combo dropped in my 80 futura. The car is a column shift and I want to keep it that way. The car was previously a 6 cal with a c4. I have all of those parts. The car has a upr tubular crossmember. The way I understand how the column shifter worked was that there was a bracket that hooked to the stock crossmember for the column shifter. My question is how do I hook up the kickdowwn and shifter linkage. I have seen lokar performance makes a kickdown and column shift linkage for a c4. Anyone use one? If I used the lokar parts could I bypass the piece that bolts to the crossmember? Or would I have to drill the upr unit to mount the linkage?

[Monty78]

If you are talking about the straight six, the bracket is attached to the rear of the inside frame rail, if I remember correctly.

[NewToFord]

I'm talking about what I should use now with the v8

[JACook]

You won't find any ready-made aftermarket way to make that column shifter work. You will need to start with
the factory V8 brackets, and figure out how to make them work with your tubular K-member. The original V8
brackets mounted to the front of the bellhousing at one end, and on the K-member at the other end. If you
start with the bellhousing bracket in place, it becomes fairly obvious where the other one needs to be.

One other thing that may not be obvious is that the linkage on the transmission is different for column shift
and floor shift cars.

The kickdown should be much easier, since nearly every aftermarket carb comes with a Ford WOT kickdown
provision. It's just a bent rod that goes from the carb to the transmission, and the rods didn't change much
over the years.

[NewToFord]

Yea I called lokar and they told me the same. Their c4 column shift won't work for my car. Another thing I noticed is that on my bellhousing there are no holes drilled for the bracket that bolts to it. On my 6cyl housing I had two holes drilled in the case for the bracket. I did however start to mock up my 6 cyl parts. The only hole I could attach the bracket to would be the one that holds the inspection cover in. It looks like it could work but I won't know until I bolt up a shorty header and really play with the linkage.

[JACook]

Yeah, that's another issue using the earlier small-bell C4. The large-bell Fox C4 used a larger, kinda dogleg
shaped inspection cover with three bolts. Two of them, one down low like the early cover, and one higher
up, were used to hold the linkage bracket.

[NewToFord]

I found this company. I talked to them and they thought the cable might work. What do u guys think?


http://www.ididitinc.com/accessories...Linkage_Acc-23

[fairmont city]

Itried to buy off them......several weeks any many phone calls later I was finally told they had no cables so back to hand making my linkage.very time consuming.

[NewToFord]

I ended up using my 6 cylinder bell crank assembly. I had a shop weld up a bracket and use the original parts. I used a lokar kick down cable. I'll try and post a pic

[Jimbo302]

I hate to do it, but I'm considering going to a floor shift in my factory V8/C4/column shift car, because of fitment issues.

[NewToFord]

I'll post some pics tomorrow on how mine worked. I run shorty headers but I think long tubes would be possible with a little more fabrication

[mcfairmont]

I had a 78 Fairmont 2 door sedan, that was a factory 302 C4 car. When I modified the car, I kept the stock column shifter with Hedman long tube headers, but I did have to make some minor mods to the shifter linkage. The rod from the bellcrank to the transmission shift lever hit a header tube , preventing the shifter from going into park. I just removed the material from the rod that stuck out past the nut that the slotted section fit over. I also had to shim the bellcranks mount that mounted to the K member. (I used the original K member.) I would imagine some fabricating would be needed to provide a mounting surface to attatch the bellcrank bracket.
As for the kickdown, I just retained the factory kickdown rod, and extended it, as the stock 2 barrel carb was further back than the Edelbrock Performer and Holley 4 barrel carb I used. Of course, if you don`t have a V8 kickdown rod.......

[Greywolf]

I used the Ididit cable on my F150/C6. I got the kit from Summit racing; who show other kits in stock.

[NewToFord]

Here is a pic of how I got mine to work. Sorry for the delay