65 Dart Auto Shift Question

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LongTimeLurker

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Hello, I have been helping my father in law work on a 65 Dart GT.

Long story short: We took out the Slant 6, rebuilt a 318 and dropped it in, along with an auto Trans (A904) from a '72. That being said, we've started the car (sounds great) but we are having issues with the shifter. The car has the original 65 floor shifter, with a new B&M cable and bracket going to the trans. We can either get the car to shift Park,Reverse, Neutral, or adjust and get Neutral, Drive and no Park or Reverse.

My question is - Is this just an adjustment issue, where there is a sweet spot we are missing or is there something else that we just don't know about? Kind of funny to go through the whole process and not being able to shift right on an automatic.

Thanks!
 
You are probably going to have to make an adjustable throw lever so you can get the cable closer or farther from the pivot point of the linkage.
If you modify a stock linkage arm for the trans and then slot it (Or multiple holes) instead of having just a hole in it for the linkage.
 
Valiant63 said:
Maybe try a 66 Barracuda floor shifter with lever to operate on that trans.
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I think he wants to use the original shifter.

Trailbeast - yeah it would seem you would need to modify the lever for it to work right.

Looking at Imperial Services website, there is a conversion kit for using a 65 shifter with a late model transmission (IS-357). Maybe that is the solution. If somebody on here before has gone through this and can provide some insight, I'd be much obliged.
 
I suspect the reason Valiant63 says to get a 66+ shifter is because most early cable-shift trannys used a different shift order. However, I am pretty sure that in 65 it changed to the standard P-R-N-D-2-1 order, per federal mandate, which would mean that 65 valve bodies are probably one year only. At least my 2 65's are standard pattern. Thus, TrailBeast's suggestion should work.
 
BillGrissom said:
I suspect the reason Valiant63 says to get a 66+ shifter is because most early cable-shift trannys used a different shift order. However, I am pretty sure that in 65 it changed to the standard P-R-N-D-2-1 order, per federal mandate, which would mean that 65 valve bodies are probably one year only. At least my 2 65's are standard pattern. Thus, TrailBeast's suggestion should work.
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You are correct it is standard order on 65 darts
 
There are actually 2 cables on a 65 trans, one a dedicated park only cable and the other the gear selector cable. How do you get around the dual setup and have the single cable from summit operate the park mechanism when the shifter is made to operate the park only cable to do this? Maybe that's why he doesn't have enough travel to operate all the gears and park too with a single cable??
 
cosgig said:
There are actually 2 cables on a 65 trans, one a dedicated park only cable and the other the gear selector cable. How do you get around the dual setup and have the single cable from summit operate the park mechanism when the shifter is made to operate the park only cable to do this? Maybe that's why he doesn't have enough travel to operate all the gears and park too with a single cable??
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There it is in a nut shell, if running 65 shifter it wont work unless you custom make a really short lever arm for the trans.
 
Just measured a B&M shifters throw it is 2" from park to Lo. It will work with a short trans lever but you will tear up cables.
 
"detents" are different between the 65 Mopar shifter and the 72 trans. The best way, is to use an "aftermarket" shifter. Or you can change the trans to a 65 trans. A 64 trans will work, also, if a 65 valve body is installed.
 
I am running a 1972 tranny with the 1965 shifter in my 1964 Barracuda, using the Imperial Services cable. Works great ;)
 
Dodge_Dart_71 said:
I am running a 1972 tranny with the 1965 shifter in my 1964 Barracuda, using the Imperial Services cable. Works great ;)
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Thanks for posting. I am pretty sure this is the easier way to go.

The shifter did have two cables going to the transmission. One cable would just move if it was in park or not. The 65 and under a904s had a unit on it that needed to know if it was in park or not. Something to do with push button shifters I think, even though this is a console shifter. The other cable does shift through all the gears, it just isn't lining up correctly with the shift lever on the 72 transmission, so you can't get it work exactly right. The imperial cable has an adapter at the end that solves this problem I guess. I am sure you could modify a shift lever to work with a lot of trial and error. Someone should figure that out and sell them on eBay. They could make tens of dollars :joker:
 
LongTimeLurker said:
Someone should figure that out and sell them on eBay. They could make tens of dollars :joker:
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Insightful. Every time I have thought of making something to sell to others, that is my conclusion. I often find something existing that is a better solution and would have obviated my solution.
 
Well the imperial cable came, took about 7 weeks, but looks great. The imperial cable/kit also came with a new valve body detent spring. Has anyone who has installed the imperial kit done so without also installing the new spring?
 
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