Replace the Automatic Transmission Shift Lever

Because the shift lever tab that holds the lever in Park was snapped off over the years (even resulting in replacing the drivers side door when Ole Blue took off across the yard while tuning and side swiping another parked car) we found an New-Old Stock (NOS) OEM shift lever on Ebay and want to swap in the new shift lever.

Ebay is our friend today - WooHoo (nice Price!!!) 

Its a black one, not tan but will work with Ole Blues Interior 

Install

First - we looked around and found the following guidance:

"... Use a punch and hammer to drive the pin from the bottom up. Probably easiest if you select reverse or second gear. Once you drive the pin out, you'll be holding the lever in your hand. " https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/915143-1966-ford-gear-shift-lever-removal-question.html

OK this seems straight forward... but it took 3 days of very careful placement of the punch (I did not want to mess up the original paint on the shift collar) to figure out how hard I had to hit the pin to push it up. You have to smack it fairly crisply and solidly to get it to move, with shift collar firmly placed on stack of newspapers of something else that will keep paint from chipping off of pressure points. 

Once the pin was out the new shift lever slipped into the shift collar with a little wrangling with the spring loaded pin that MUST be under the shift lever. By turning the shift lever just enough and sliding it into the shift collar while pressing it against the engine side pressur epin the shift lever slipped into place. I inserted the pin from the top down into the collar and lever and viola! New lever for ole blue! 

      

         

     

Time to fix the Turn Signal

The turn signal on Ole Blue hasn't worked right since we started driving this truck 7 years ago. We can indicate the direction we are turning but regardless of direction we flip the switch it never returns back to OFF position after the turn. 

Working with my son on his 1966 Mustang he has a similar problem when he turns left, he pulled the steering wheel and found a broken return cam and found a replacement switch online so I decided to do the same.

First stop is a quick search on FTE forums to see what lessons I can take away from others efforts and bottom line is the key recommendation is NOT to try and replace the cam, just replace the whole switch. "Autoparts store replacement cams never fit or work worth a damn."

C9TZ-13341-C ...T/S Switch / Available from Ford. is what Bill the retired Ford Parts Manager says but when I looked online at our local Ford dealership they said this part has been discontinued. (Maybe since the original post from Bill was dated 2006, this has happened in the past 14 years!!). Have to find another source. 

Bill also said to follow the method the ford techs used: 

1) Cut the wires off about 1 1/2" above the connector, leaving enough so the color of each can be determined.

2) Tape the wires together, and tie a long piece of string to them.

3) Pull the switch from the column, tape the new wires together, tie the string to them.

4) Pull the string from the bottom of the column, the wires will feed down without binding up. Match the new wire colors to the cut-off pieces remaining in the connector.

"In the 1960's, there was an ancient Ford tech at the dealer I worked at, who could R&R a TSS in 10 minutes or less using this method....including R&R'ing the wheel." - Bill    

Thanks BILL!