4L80E Conversion Question

[TheMonkey]

the car did not originally have any safety mechanism to prevent taking the car out of park without a key & press brake. i get super nervous about kids in the car when parked.

i'm doing the 4L80E swap.

is there any way to keep the 4L80E in P unless an electronic signal is sent? or... is a mechanical arrangement in the steer column necessary? somehow, it's electronic in my '05 Suburban because it requires foot on brake, but i'm not sure if the resistance is in the column or the tranny.

thanks,
Scott.

[GetMore]

The newer vehicles have a solenoid that locks the shifter. You should be able to rig something.

I think they usually have a switch in the shifter itself, so when you push the shifter button/pull back on the shifter (depending on if it is floor or column shift) it applies the solenoid, unless the brake is pressed, which keeps it off.

[Steve Chryssos]

Yup. Just incorporate a late model shifter out of the junkyard. Don;t get anything too new though since most of the current stuff has CAN-bus wiring. Here's what we did on the red car. We did not save the safety solenoid, but we did retain the +/- manumatic function.
https://static1.pt-content.com/images/noimg.gif

[TheMonkey]

thx for the replies. Steve- looks like a nice setup.

hmm... i have '61 column shift with a bench seat. i would not mind getting rid of the column shift because it's going to interfere with headers anyhow, but i want to preserve the floor space for bench.

somebody here mentioned push button potential before, but i'd love to hear some ideas and see some examples. for my conversion (into '61 Bonneville), i want to:

- have safety mechanism from gear going into N while parked.
- avoid original column linkage, as it interferes with headers at firewall to trans tunnel area
- preserve floor space for bench seat

thanks for any thoughts.

[Steve Chryssos]

I've ben tthinking about trying to make one of these work--Hide it under the dash like a hood release.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/p/2288,,_The-Original-Shurloc-Shifter.html?itemNo=shifter

If the link doesn't work, go to http://www.speedwaymotors.com and search shurloc

[GetMore]

I know there is an electronic pushbutton shifter out there.