I recently purchased a center console shifter from the ever popular e-bay. It was posted as being out of a 1972 Buick GS and claims to fit a variety of other Buicks. When I received the unit it i noticed it was in fair shape for it's age, however after doing some light clean up I noticed that this shifter appears to only have 4 gear locking positions (P, R, N, D). Does that make sense to anyone ? most cars outside of the Power Glide or Ford-O-matic have at least 2 additional low gears as part of the selection or at least in my 1969 skylark I have P, R, N, D, L1, L2. So, do you guys have any indication as to what this may be out of? I will post a couple of pictures later on today, in the mean time I may be looking for the right shifter for my needs. Let me know if you have something like that laying around that you may want to part with. Many thanks in advance. E
thanks Dennis, Well, according to this schematic, I have the right unit. Just seems odd there are only 4 stopping points on the shifter travel if there are actually 6 different selections. I anticipate finishing the floorboards soon and then fabricate the mounting for this unit. The other question I had was, is the standard Skylark instrument cluster interchangeable with that of a GS? Many thanks for your response, I am learning day by day on this
>>The Skylark and GS shared the same instrument cluster - just usually different gauges which you can add like a rally gauge or in-dash tach.
That's because there's no detente for the shifter between L1 and L2 and between Drive and Neutral. In other words, if you drive one of these cars with a console shifter you'll see that you can move the shifter from N to D or L1 to L2 without pulling up on the handle. You only have to pull up to move to Reverse or Park or from Drive to Low.
Are you messing with it without it hooked to the transmission? If so that's why it feels weird. The detent feel on all transmissions is from the transmission, and as ddhathaway states, there is not shifter stopping gates between L1, L2 & D so it relies on the transmission detents for the feel (as do almost all shifters).
Well that makes sense. I had it ll taken apart for cleaning and replacing a couple of the plastic pieces, it just seemed like it was the wrong unit altogether. Thanks for your wisdom as I thought I was going to have to go on the hunt for another shifter. As it is it took me long enough to find the hood I thought finding another shifter may take some time. on the other question, if the instrument cluster is interchangeable then, is there any resin why not to go with the GS cluster? By the way I had already purchased a hood tach, so how would I benefit from the GS cluster other than getting a better looking GS clone. Here is a picture of the shifter gates. Thanks E
