Thanks, Alan. It does indeed help. Oddly, my overdrive tranny came with a
fabricated shift knob too. First, it had a sawed-off shift lever with a hole
drilled for the switch wiring to exit the hollow shift lever en route to the
transmission. Second, and weirdest, it had a pool table cue ball with a hole
drilled into it and an adapter glued in to screw onto the shift lever. An
oblique hole had been drilled to mate up with the top of the screw-on hole.
Into the oblique hole was stuffed the OD switch, with the wiring then leading
through the top of the hollow shift lever, and out the bottom as described
above.
I was thinking to replicate all this in a wood shift knob, but wanted to use a
new switch because the work, not the switch, is the expensive part of all
this.
Terry Smith, TR3A TS 58667
New Hampshire (front body half done! Waiting for the snow to clear to take
the frame/engine/etc. to the body guy for the rest!)
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Hi Terry,
Sorry, but I don't recall the specs or part number of the switch. I probably
bought it 4 or 5 years ago at Radio Shack. It's a round push button, maybe
1/2" diameter, in a round bezel that's about 1" in diameter, maybe 1-1/4".
It's all black, plastic. I was very pleased to find it was exactly the same
size as the emblem on top of the aftermarket shift knob. The bezel is even
slightly curved, sort of like the top of the shift knob.
The switch itself is relatively small and momentary, single pole/single
throw, which is all that's needed for the OD.
I had an old, used aftermarket shift knob to experiment with. Now should
probably re-do it with a nice, new knob that's in a little better condition.
Carving out the knob wasn't bad. It turned out the leather knobs are just
stretched over wood, so are actually identical to the walnut-finished-wooden
knobs underneath.
I used a Dremel tool and a couple different tips to make a space for the
switch inside the knob. The switch is simply a very tight fit, so no
attachment is needed, although it would be possible to glue in place if
wanted.
The wires just run out through a hole drilled through the bottom of the
knob, near the shift lever shaft, down the shaft and into the boot, then
across the gearbox and back out to the relay. Oh, and I've got Revington TR's
OD controller "black box" yet to install on the car, which will make it very
much like driving a 6- or 7-speed gearbox (depending upon whether or not 2nd
gear OD is used, which is possible, but pretty hard on the early A-type ODs
especially).
I may still slip some black shrink tubing over the entire shift lever to
secure and hide the wires better.
Hope this helps!
Alan
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