Big redo of the old bucket

Up here in the frozen wastelands of MN not much happens until Spring. But I did mount the new electric shifter to the transmission:

Made a new shift arm from aluminum strap. The knobs set the shift points. This is only done once and then the dash knob selects the desired gear:

 

Choppin, I'd love to make them for others, but these days I haven't the energy. I'm 76 and seem to have really run down in the last few years. But I'll be glad to share the schematic, parts list, pics, etc to anyone that would like to do it themselves.

 

IG, you must post your CV on the Lounge. I grok you have led a most interesting life. Here's the schematic:

Firgelli and Actuonix merged recently. They sell their big actuators under the Firgelli name and the little ones as Actuonix. Google both names to see all the products. Good prices and lots of neat stuff (how about an electric swivel for your wall mount TV?).
The mystery box just has the LAC (control board) and the pots and switches. The LAC puts out 3.3v and each pot thru it's switch sends a control voltage to the LAC telling it how far to extend the actuator. Each DPDT switch has a set of contacts that, when all the switches are off, enables the dash switch to select gears.
I'm using the L16 actuator but they have a P16 that is stronger. I also did a bit of tweaking inside the transmission to make the shift easier and faster. The gear "detents" are just a rooster comb wheel and a spring. I put some washers under the spring so it puts less pressure on the rooster comb.

 

Hey, I had to bake the cake! They just call it the LAC: https://www.actuonix.com/LAC-Board-p/lac.htm

 

I recently (OK, 5 yrs ago) raised my motor and tranny a couple inches. Tired of banging pans on speed bumps, driveways, dead bodies, etc. Having some Okie blood (6 months in Ardmore) I decided to just stick wood spacers in the mounts. This year's vernal equinox opened the family crypt, I drank the brew of Tana leaves and Mountain Dew, and now can resume tinkering. Here's what the old setup was:

...two pieces of wood under the mount and one piece on top. Hey, it worked. But check out the new setup:


That trick spacer can be found here GM Transmission Mount Spacer-Block | G Force

And the SHORT polyurethane mount is the
Energy Suspension 3.1158G Gm Transmission Mount - Short,
available on Amazon and other places.

 

Just Googling around until I got a hit!

 

Well, I actually invented the Google search engine when I was fooling around at Stanford, or maybe dreamed I did.

 

My new meds, although technically illegal, are doing wonders for my motivation. I finally installed the new mounting plates for my IRS. The old plates only had 3 bolts on each side of the IRS. Decades of torque had broken some of the bolts; I could've lost my rear end! The new plates have 5 bolts. Old plate with sketch of new plate, and the new plate, laser cut by the nice guys at Discount Steel (now called Coremark):


I had to remove the gas tank to get to the IRS, so here's a rare view of the bed:

...and the new mounts in place: