4 Speed and Shifter Install

The motor mounts are finished, refitted and welded to the frame, so it was time to fit the four speed in place. I had to replace the set up block with my 283 at this point in order to bolt the saginaw four speed in place. The 238 is a little on the dirty side but it will get its turn later.

At this stage of the game it is real easy to drop in the motor and transmission, almost as easy as sitting it on the floor. I have been asked a couple of times if the four speed uses the same mounting point as the TH350 I used earlier. Yes it does, everything fell right in place!

The four speed is narrower than the automatic and fits between the frame rails with plenty of clearance. It also appears to take up less vertical space so that should help in the cabs floor department. As always there is a problem area.

A shifter needs to fit in there someplace and that place has part of the upper driverside frame rail in the way. I knew ahead of time that there was some clearance problems here so this does not surprise me. I have also heard there is no "kit" to help you out here. If there was I'm not sure I would buy it anyway as this looks like a job could vary depending on the transmission and shifter used.

Here is location the shifter needs to be, and kind of scary to think about cutting the frame up to get it in place. Sitting there looking at it I wondered if I would be better off looking for a different shifter, or making a different mount to let it fit tighter against the tailshaft. Then I thought about bending all the rods to make them work right again, maybe I should leave it alone. When Steve said if it already worked good leave it my decision was made. Cut into the frame. Since Hurst shifter came with the transmission I might as well use it. The tunnel hat was removed from the frame and eyeball dimensions made, marked and out came the saw.
After I made the cuts, fit and trimmed a little more I bolted the shifter in place. It then became clear I cut a little to deep into the frame rail. At least I'll know better next time! From here the first step was to fix my mistake and build the frame back up. I decided that if I built the frame back up to the top of the rectangular opening on the right I would have plenty of clearance. I also decided to fill that rectangular hole while I was at it and later the oval hole on the left.

I made a filler plate to fill in the lower rectangular factory hole and brought it straight across making my vertical cut about half of what it was. The frame rail starts to bend here so the filler plate was bent to match and welded in place. A flat horizontal plate was then cut and welded to the side of the frame rail at the new lower edge of my opening and extending back to my frame brace connecting the inner and outer frame rails. This will become the bottom of my pocket for the linkage clearance.

At this time I welded a nut (or a nut was welding) on the top inside frame rail for the bolt hole just behind the shifter. A small triangular plate was welded in here also for strength. Now I know for sure I can bolt the hat on at this point. Next another plate was cut to weld in vertically along the edge of the new horizontal plate forming a pocket for my shift linkage.

It looks a little better at this point and added some strength back into the frame. Everything clears and works fine at this point but I would still like to add a little more strength to it. I also would like to fill in that lower hole for good measure. From here a strip was cut and welded to the edge of the new vertical plate from the frame rail to the brace. This will give me a place to add a bolt to the hat. If you haven't guessed by now the upper hat needs to be modified to clear the shifter. I don't like to cut up new parts but you do what you need to do. I cut off part of the wing using my saved bolt hole as a guide, this is the one that has the nut welded to the frame. The center was then marked and trimmed to fit around the shifter and test fitted.

When I ran the shifter through the gears I found that the 3-4 gear linkage would hit my hat plate so this area was trimmed alittle more. I then drilled a couple new bolt holes to mount the modified hat in place. One was on the new flat area of the pocket, the other was between the two existing mounting holes at the frame.

All it needs now is a little trimming around the shifter for breathing room and grinding some welds down. One step closer and still a long way to go!