Floor shift for BW Flash o Matic?

By Googling, I found some old threads:

From 2010, some links are broken
http://amccars.net/cgi/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1273023692;start=all
recommends B&M Quicksilver, B&M Starshifter, B&M Street Bandit although the trigger, hmmm.

From 2014
http://theamcforum.com/forum/64-rambler-classic-shifter-swap_topic56922.html
No recommendations.

From 2011
http://theamcforum.com/forum/64-rambler-3-spd-manual-shifter-option_topic34641.html
Recommends Hurst Universal Truck shifter, and there's a JC Whitney link that's broken.

I'll have to research these options. But at least there may be options.

Ivor

Bench... and a nice original interior that I'd like to preserve.

The B&M Quicksilver looks possible. I could mount it on a console tilted back so the lever is within reach. Whether it works depends how the throw of the lever registers with the throw of the trans lever, or whether one or both could be slotted like the Lokar.
I've asked B&M whether it will work with the Flash O.

The Lokar floor-mount might be an option, but I don't like the absence of a position indicator. Not what I'd call a serious shifter for regular road use.

Question: the shift sequence N D2 D1 seems to assume that most of the time one will pull away in 2nd gear.
The B&M shifters have a straight gate to get into Drive, but a ratchet to get into 2nd and Low. It would be a nuisance if I had to keep ratcheting back into D1.

How practical is it to start off in D2 most of the time?

Ivor

Correct. As long as you are content to leisurely get going it is designed to take off in 2nd. If you want more performance use D1. I'd forget one of the shifters that have the lock in 3rd. A standard shifter should be fine, something like an old Ford Pinto shifter. The problem you will run into is that the positions on the old BW trannies are not all the same distance apart. IIRC there is a bigger gap between P , R and D2, but L-D1-D2 are the same distance. That will throw the position indicator off a bit on a standard shifter. You might look at a Lokar shifter. Note that the detents inside the trans determine where the shifter stops, not detents in the shifter. So the shifter will match the trans, won't line up exactly with the indicators on the shifter.  You can adjust the arm or make an arm for the trans easy enough, will just take a little trial and error to get it right... or rather close enough.

Normally you should drive in D1 range and take advantage of all three speeds. The D2 range is intended to be used on slippery, reduced traction surfaces such as snow and ice to reduce the chance of spinning your drive wheels. To quote from the owners manual of my 67 Ambassador, "Since starting in second gear (D2) requires greater throttle opening for the same acceleration, more fuel would be used on starts in D2"

Search for BW M8. The M10 is just the M8 with a TV cable instead of vacuum modulator.

This site has some photos of the Studebaker version -- identical to Rambler except for bell housing.
http://www.studebaker-info.org/Tech/Transmission/FMX/fmx2.html

It's virtually identical to the old Ford-O-Matic and Cruise-O-Matic (both Ford trannys, license built versions of the M-8). If Lokar has a shifter for one of those it should be easily adaptable to the M-8.