Toms65

Hey everyone... hope you all had a nice Christmas! I set my engine in the frame of my 65 442 yesterday, put the flywheel and clutch on. I set the 4 speed Muncie on the bench and set the shifter in place but I don't seem to have the linkage for it. I was reading some about changing it to a Hurst shifter but I wanted to get some advice on here first on what direction to go. Turns i have 2 shifter handles. I was wondering what the difference was in the 2. I will attach some pics. Any insight would be great thanks...Tom

rob1960

Tom, I'm not an expert on '65s but the same 4spd console was used thru 1969. Since the shifter opening was offset to the drivers side the shifter used a straight stick like the one on the right in your pic. I've never seen one with a bend in the stick until '70 when the console opening was in the center. Someone may have heated & bent the other one you have for some other vehicle?? or maybe a bench seat car got a different lever?? As far as linkage goes most of the chevy places like Ecklers plus the parts place have repop linkage kits for muncie shifters. The parts place has a kit for '64-7 chevelles for $89. The better choice if you're not doing a totally correct factory resto would be to try to get a much better Hurst shifter for a '66-9. The shifter stick on '66s was a one year only as it was flat all the way up to the ball threads like the muncie sticks that you have. The '67-9 shifters will work also but the sticks were tapered at the top like the one in the pic of my '68 setup.

joe_padavano

The Muncie shifter pictured was only used for the 1964-65 model years. There were different sticks for console and non-console cars, but the difference was in the upper end of the stick, not the bend at the bottom. I've never seen that bend on the early cars, and frankly the discoloration on the LH stick looks like it was custom bent for some application. The factory would not have put the bend so close to the 442 stamp on the stick. I suspect that the LH stick has been modified. Are the two sticks the same overall length if you measure along the bend? In other words, can you tell if the bent stick, if straightened, would be the same length as the other one?

Toms65

The shift lever is the same. Looking closely at it I can see vise marks where it was bent and painted silver up to the 2 in 442. So I guess I need to decide whether to use the shifter I have or upgrade to a Hurst shifter. From what I have read so far the Hurst upgrade is my better setup. I just want to be able to use a 4 speed console with it. Thanks Rob and Joe!

joe_padavano

The 1966-69 Hurst shifter fit the same console with the same Muncie trans. There is also an adapter available that lets you bolt your original 1965 stick onto a Muncie shifter for optical correctness.

Toms65

Good deal...thx a lot Joe