I'm coming along nicely in my engine swap, and I've come to the point in my project where I have to figure out shift linkage. I'm trying to reuse my original column shift linkage, just because it's cheaper than buying a shifter. I figured I can cut the lever off my old C4 and weld it to the lever on my AOD, as long as it's clocked right,the same distance from the centerline of the tranny, and the same distance from the pivot point, it should work perfectly. All I had to do was flip the AOD shift lever 180 degrees, no problem. So I did that this afternoon, and found this lovely issue....


The throttle valve lever is connected directly to the throttle, so when I step on the gas, it moves too. But.....as it is now,when I step on the gas with the trans in park, it'll push the shift lever into reverse, sending the truck flying backwards. Obviously that's a big problem. Here's why....


The shift lever has a slight bend in it, so the throttle valve lever hits it. So now, I get to pull the shift lever out of the trans and heat it and pound it flat. Hopefully this is the last of the problems tranny-wise. I just love it when I plan falls to pieces because of some minor unexpected issue, but that's how it goes.

What about the issue of 4 forward speeds on the new one versus 3 on the old one. The detents on your column shifter won't match.

That is correct. That will take some engineering.

That will take a floor shift

That won't be a problem, both transmissions have P-R-N-D-2-1, so hopefully if I get the pivot length of the shift lever on the tranny right so the length the shifter arm travels is the same they'll hopefully match up close enough.

The AOD will be P-R-N-D-3-2-1 and probably has a lock up torque converter.