[DeTomaso] Cable Shifter

[Julian Kift]

Getting into this discussion late, but I have cable shifters on both the Ultima and GT40.
The Ultima is using a  Porsche G50 transaxle with the side shift adapter and  a Renegade shifter. It took a long while to get the gate correct to have both R and 5th without issue and solving the expansion difference between hot & cold. Shift cables are a 1/4-28 typically, although you can go 5/16-24 if you don't have to negotiate any tight bends as the larger the cable the greater the minimum bend radius.
At one point I was going to convert the GT40 to a ZF and have one of CNC's early ZF cable ends here in a box, it's very well made I think it was a bout $300 a good while back. The cab shifter can be had at your local pick-n-pull out of a mid 80's Toyota Tercel, in fact I have a couple here (these are visually identical to the ones Superformance supplies with their GT40's). In fact I just recalled I have a shifter and cables for SPF GT40 too in the loft.
I ended up switching the GT40 to a cable shift but retaining the Porsche transaxle. The old rod shifter was a bit vague and went out through the floor and under the car, so ground clearance was minimal. I also wanted to relocate it onto the tunnel and on the KVA GT40 the center spines of the tube chassis double as the coolant tubes, so no way to straight down through the tunnel. The conversion was actually easier than I first thought it would be and I fabricated the transaxle end components, which when you think about aren't that complex. You need a way of connecting the cable to the for-aft movement of the shifter, where I simply cut the old rod and tapped the end for a 1/4-28 cable. The cross gate is just a bell crank affair I welded to the rod, the tricky part is just getting the correct rotational movement i.e. length.
I went to Control Cables Inc. in CA for my cables http://store.controlcables.com/CCI_Catalog.pdf
All that said I don't think I'd be in a hurry to convert a Pantera to cable shift.
Julian

> From: dnunn at telus.net
> To: detomaso at realbig.com
> Date: Thu, 30 Aug 2012 16:50:25 -0700
> Subject: [DeTomaso]  Cable Shifter
> 
> CNC Performance Parts (http://cncperformanceparts.com) makes a cable shifter
> for the ZF. 
> 
> It's my understanding that James Malin's cable shifter is the CNC
> Performance Parts unit with a few modifications to make it work better in a
> Pantera. I did speak with James Malin about one but decided it wasn't for
> me. One of the things I didn't like was the fact the Pantera's shift gate
> gets replaced by a leather boot and Momo shift knob. I also couldn't imagine
> it could improve shifting over a properly maintained and adjusted OE shift
> mechanism. As far as the price is concerned, I don't recall the amount but I
> do remember it didn't shock me.
> 
> If you do fit a cable shifter to your Pantera, you can then go one step
> further and fit a paddle shifter from Mastershift (http://mastershift.com),
> as they make one for ZF's with cable shifters.  
> 
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