Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

Looking for some help from a "Winters Shifter Guru".......

I am installing a Winters Sidewinder Shifter in my 1970 Olds 442 Drag Car and have encountered a number of "demons," when trying to "adjust" the Shifter Cable.

I have a Rossler TH 400 Transmission and purchased the entire Shifter Kit from a solid Winters Distributor. Also spoke to Winters ahead of time, to make sure I had the correct Part numbers, prior to ordering everything. (The Kit is Part # 107-2B LockOut Shifter Kit with 9112-1092, 1095 Shifter Installation Kit, Reverse Pattern Lock Out Cover Plate and 5070 Console.)

After very carefully going through the instructions thoroughly, after making adjustments to the threaded ends of the Shifter Cable, I am running out of "travel" in order to make the Quick-connect Ball on the Shifter Cable "line up" with 3rd gear Position on the Transmission Lever (I'm about 1/8" short on the travel)........i.e., When the Shifter is in Park and I adjust the threaded connector on the Cable to fit in Park position, when I then shift to 3rd gear position, I'm approx. 1/8" short....... I've been over the adjustment 5 - 6 times, thinking I might have missed something....but I just can't find a way to make it work out.....feeling stupid and lost....
Any help would be appreciated.: confused:
Harold

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

Not sure if it will help, but try adjusting it with trans. in neutral?

Also is the shift lever on the trans. supplied with the shifter?
Might have hole for linkage in wrong location?

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

Using all of the Winters Parts. Am using the Center Hole in the Shifter. I'll try the neutral idea.
Thanks.

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

The ball stud in the transmission shift bracket should face the case - for some reason the T-400 is the only unit that installs that way.


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Let us know how you make out!


I remember visiting the Winters' shop over 50 years ago, when they were down the street from US-30 in York, PA!



Lew

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

Thanks for the info. Lew. I had to mount the ball and the Cable on the "outside," so I could route the shift cable through a welded in tube that runs through my crossmember, otherwise the cable would be in a bind (side-to-side).

Although I see that Winters shows the ball and Cable on the "inside" of the brackets, respectfully Lew, I don't see how that would necessarily make any difference, as both are on the same "center-to-center distance".....I may be all wet Lew, but I don't see how the ball and Cable on the "outside" would cause my problem.
......Still trying to figure things out.
Thanks for your responses.

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

Call Winters and ask them what the center to center distance should be on the trans lever, then check yours. Sounds like your distance is a little too long.

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

If you remove the shift lever check to see if the rectangular hole is at a slight angle . If it is then that's why you want the ball to the inside since the angle of the lever front to back will change .

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

I did some more checking on my Cable and Shifter over the weekend. It looks like I can get Park, Reverse and 1st lined up on the Shifter and on the Transmission Lever/Arm just fine, but 2nd is approx. 1/16" short and 3rd is still approx. <1/8" short.
I started thinking that the only thing that might make sense is that the "travel" of my Cable is possibly too short?? I then checked the full "travel" of my Winters Shift Cable at both ends. Both have a total travel of approx. 3.135" each..... I'm not sure if that's enough travel to cover the full range of travel for a Rossler TH400 and this specific Shifter? Maybe it is??:confused:
I'm going to call Winters tomorrow. Maybe ATI also, if Winters doesn't figure things out for me.
I'll post what I learn from my calls to them, in case it might help someone else in the future with the same issue.

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

Maybe change hole location on arm. Going further away from shaft requires more cable travel. Had to do this when a used a t400 shifter assembly on a my metric 200.

Re: Winters Shifter Adjustment...is killing me!!
 

Thanks Jim and to all that have tried to help. I spoke to the Winters Distributor again today and I told them I did some measuring and have found that the Linear Travel on the Transmission Arm Positions in the various Gears is "different" than the Linear distances for the Shifter.....This has to be part of, if not the true problem...The Travels must be the same.....I don't know what else to think?? The Winters Distributor told me that there's not much else to check on the Shifter. They said to call Rossler and talk to them about some possible causes from the Transmission??? That really shocked me. I can't see there could possibly be any problems in that area.
Also tried setting everything starting in 3rd gear.....same problems.
The reason I had decided to try the Distributor again, is that they sell a lot of these Winters Applications and I thought they could give me a better, "hands on" type of answer from their in the field experience.... As they have no more suggestions, I'll definitely call Winters directly tomorrow. Hopefully, they can help me??...My fingers are crossed..........I'm at a kind of a dead end. Not sure what to do after that??
Maybe try ATI and see if I might have a bad set of Trans. Brackets? Who knows??:confused: