The sound of a motor when it's at the top of the Rs is like music to my grease monkey ears. No matter if there are four cylinders screaming a high-pitched whine or eight cylinders growling a deep rumble, I just dig it. If there's a performance muffler in the mix, it's even better. The best way I know to hear that sweet sound of horsepower is to mash the gas and manually shift the transmission. If you have a manual tranny or a truck already equipped with a console shifter this is pretty convenient to do. What about the folks, myself included, who have the shifter hanging off the side of the steering column? While that location is convenient for normal driving, when it comes time for race mode it basically sucks. So what is a column-shift guy to do? Install an aftermarket floor shifter, that's what. The S-10 I am building has a muscle-car theme, so a console and floor shifter is a must-have setup.
I was lucky enough to be gifted a very clean center console from a '64 SS Impala. I sat the console on the floor between my seats just to see what I would need to do to make it fit. The console sat great along the tunnel and all the bumps in the S-10's floor, almost as if it was made to fit. A few well-placed strips of aluminum angle pop-riveted to the floor pan took care of the mounting points to screw it down. Now it was time to fill it with something cool. Initially, I was going to hunt down a factory shifter setup, until I remembered my '70 SS Chevelle. That car had a factory floor shifter that I swapped out for a ratcheting-style aftermarket piece. Because of the ratcheting nature of the aftermarket unit, shifting from Low to Third and inadvertently shifting into Neutral was eliminated.
So instead of going backward I decided to hunt for a floor shifter that had classic styling, would fit into my Impala console and would be compatible with my 700R four-speed automatic transmission. The shifter I had in my Chevelle was a Hurst unit, so I checked out that company first. I didn't have to hunt very long because the Original Quarter Stick not only had the classic yet racy look I wanted, but it also fit my console and could be used on the 700 trans. The shifter comes with everything you would need to install it. Heck, there's even a black cover with an aluminum top piece for those of you without a console. One thing I had to pick up that didn't come with the shifter was a reverse light switch.
To install the shifter, I enlisted the help of Bodie Stroud at BS Industries. Bodie and his crew built the '56 Ford F-100 in our September '08 issue, which is one badass truck. Anyway, seeing a truck like that come out of his shop was all the reassurance I needed to let him work on my little Dime. It took Bodie all of about two hours to install the shifter with me slowing him down for the pictures.
What's In The Box?
Here is the Quarter Stick from Hurst (PN 3160030). This compact, lightweight shifter can be used on two, three, and four-speed automatic transmissions in both forward and reverse valve-body shift patterns. It is a detent-type shifter, so it will be next to impossible to miss a shift and there is a reverse lock-out so you won't get kicked off the track. Transferring the movement of the shifter to the transmission is a 5-foot-long cable. The cable features a solid 303 stainless steel inner wire core encased within a nylon liner that has been lubricated with Teflon for smooth operation. The box also includes all the little brackets and clips needed to install the shifter. One thing not included is the switch for the back-up lights; I had to include that in my original order, adding $14.48 to my $268.34 shifter.
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 1.First things first, we needed...  1.First things first, we needed to see if the shifter would clear the opening in the '64 console. The stick fit fine, but the reverse lockout release lever hit and would require a new hole drilled in the console. |  2.Since I would rather retain...  2.Since I would rather retain the stock-looking console instead of passing tech at a drag strip, I had Bodie remove that mechanism from the shifter. Everything else about the shifter will still function properly once the lockout is removed, but I won't pass a tech inspection if I go to a track. |  3.To figure out location,...  3.To figure out location, the shifter was placed on the tunnel and the console slid over it. Bodie then gently cycled the shifter from Park to Low to make sure its throw wasn't longer than the hole in the console. Luckily it was a perfect match--in Park the handle is right at the top of the slot, and in Low it's right at the back. A piece of blue tape stuck to the carpet was used to mark the front edge of the assembly. |
 4.After lifting the console...  4.After lifting the console out of the way, a white marker was used to mark the holes. |  5.The shifter comes with large...  5.The shifter comes with large self-tapping bolts to hold the unit down. Bodie used an impact gun to drive them into the floor. |  6.After the shifter was secured...  6.After the shifter was secured to the floor, a section of the carpet was removed so Bodie could drill the hole for the cable to pass through. Hurst instructs you to drill a 1-inch hole 5 inches in front of the shifter base. Bodie drilled a smaller pilot hole first. |
 7.Then he grabbed the 1-inch...  7.Then he grabbed the 1-inch bit and went to town. There isn't anything under this area of the truck besides the transmission, but Bodie checked before he drilled anything. |  8.After massaging the hole...  8.After massaging the hole a little with a screwdriver to lift the back edge, Bodie slid the cable through the hole. Instead of leaving the edge of the hole bare metal, Bodie installed a little rubber grommet he found in his shop. This was done much later and I didn't snap a picture, so I apologize. |  9.One end of the cable was...  9.One end of the cable was hooked to the shifter with the provided clips and cotter pin. |
10. |  11.Bodie installed the reverse...  11.Bodie installed the reverse light switch above the already installed neutral safety switch and prewired them. We ran the back-up wires up under the dash and hooked the reverse light ones to the blue and green wires connected to the switch on the column. Come to find out these S-10s don't have an electronic neutral safety switch, so those wires didn't end up getting used. The first-generation S-10s use the steering column to mechanically keep the key from turning to start unless the shift handle is in Park or Neutral. You will lose that option with this conversion so keep that in mind and set the parking brake for good measure. |  12.Moving underneath the truck,...  12.Moving underneath the truck, all of the factory shift stuff was removed. The hardest part of this was removing the retaining clip at the column, but with a little persistence, Bodie got it off. There won't be a need for any of the stock linkage rods, so those were tossed in the scrap pile. |
 13.The cable bracket is held...  13.The cable bracket is held on by the factory pan bolts, and the new shift arm uses the factory nut as well. The shift arm can be installed a few different ways, but the one shown here is the correct way. The instructions come with a detailed drawing to make sure you get it right. |  14.This is what the lower...  14.This is what the lower end should look like when you have it hooked up. To adjust the cable, the shifter and transmission were put into Neutral and then the bolts on the cable bracket were tightened up. It might be a good idea to tighten the other trans bolts while you are under there. |  15.Bodie noticed the shifter...  15.Bodie noticed the shifter was rubbing the bottom of the console a little bit, but this was nothing that a skilled hand and an air grinder couldn't take care of. After the trimming was done the console was screwed in place and the cool shift knob was spun on the top of the shifter. |
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The Final Word
Not only does the interior look the part with the console and bright white knob on the shifter, it also plays the part. I can bang through the gears without the fear of a missed shift, and having the shifter on the floor just feels right to me.