Was wondering if anyone might have some pictures or good verbal description of how the console shifter installs in a '68 Riv. I've got the service and parts manuals, but they're more than just a little vague. In fact, I'm not even sure if there were mounts on the floor that the shifter mounts to, or if the shifter mounts directly to the floor. I don't see anything in the manuals about mounts for the shifter, but it's not really obvious to me how the thing would mount directly to the floor. Thanks for any help!
The 68 and 69 consoles are different, but I can't believe they'd be so different as to not mount similarly. The 69's shifter uses screws to hold the shifter to the floor tunnel. Big screws. The floor and shifter don't mate well, but well enough to make it obvious just where it goes. Make sure the shifter is where it should be, though, by using the console to be sure it all fits right. Then use a hole saw to cut a hole in the floor. I just eyeballed it by seeing how the cable layed coming out of the shifter. My car had the short consolette, so there was a mount on the floor in the back for the rear of the console. I bent a piece of metal and pop rivited it to the floor where the front console mount screws down. Trial and error here. Nobody is concours judging whether or not the console is mounted EXACTLY stock. Maybe even take pics as you go to help out the next 68 Riv owner. Then post pics here when done!
Hank, yes, that's the shifter and linkage I'm trying to install, and I'm converting from column shift to floor. The part that's got me confused is the slanted part at the front of the shifter that has the two mounting holes. It looks like the tube for the cross shaft would have to sink into a hole in the floor, and the slanted part looks like it needs to match up to the right hand side of the transmission tunnel...but doesn't that put the shifter at a slant to the right if the rear mount is on top of the tunnel? Yards, does the '69 have a cable shifter? If so, it's a completely different deal than the '68 as far as the shifter goes. Well, I know it's different as far as the console itself, but I guess I figured the shifter might still use levers and rods, just be adapted for the '69 console. But I will take pics of the installation as I go along...if only to show what not to do. Hank, have you done this installation before? Or maybe removed the shifter in the picture from '68? Thanks.
The '69 is definitely a cable shift setup. Shifter and console design are different than the '68. '68 uses the '66 style console/shifter which utilizes the shifter linkage setup in the pic in above post. None of the parts will interchange.
Here are some pics of my conversion, still not done yet. Had to cut a piece of the floor out of a console car and weld it into mine.
Hank, Hey, thanks for the pics, they're just what I needed!! You've done a really good installation there, better than I'll do for damn sure. I don't have the tunnel section/rear console mount, so I'll have to fab something up. Looks like the console mount at the rear is the same as one I've got for a 70 Chevelle, other than height, so that may not be a problem at all. And I may actually find the hump sometime between now and when I need to get the console installation completed. I think there will be a fair amount of adjustability fore and aft provided by the doohicky on the front end of the shifter rod that goes to the lever on the transmission, which might help. Thanks again! You don't have another tunnel hump do you???
Sorry no I don't. Got that one from a rusted up junker in the yards by luck. Next day the car was crushed and gone. Shoulda grabbed more parts from it. Good luck on yours.:beers2:
