converting to a sequential shifter: Grassroots Motorsports forum: Grassroots Motorsports Magazine

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Jan. 5, 2011 4:50 p.m. itsarebuild Reader

i'm not sure if this has ever been discussed here as i have no idea what terms to put in the search bar, but i was wondering how hard it would be to put a sequential shifter on a 1990 ford ranger manual transmission. by sequential i mean like a motorcycle where you move it down (back) to move to the next lower gear and up (forward) to go to the next higher gear. does anyone make kits for your everyday transmission to do this? and what is the correct term for that kind of shifter...... if it has one?

thanks!
Jan. 5, 2011 5:05 p.m. oldtin Dork

Not hard - just expensive. At least with the big sequential transmision mfgs like quaife or hewland. But a bike-engined car like a locost or a LeGrand - is oh so groovy.
Jan. 5, 2011 5:09 p.m. itsarebuild Reader

i found a kit for domestic 4 speeds that wasnt TOO bad..... but i dont have a four speed! has anyone ever tried to make one up...... grassroots style?
Jan. 5, 2011 5:32 p.m. paul Reader

they have retrofit kits over in jdm land for certain cars...

http://www.nengun.com/ikeya-formula/sequential-shifter
Jan. 5, 2011 6:09 p.m. mad_machine SuperDork

ok.. I need to rain on this parade.... why?
Jan. 5, 2011 6:20 p.m. z31maniac SuperDork

^Yeah, a sequential trans 21 year old Ford Ranger.

The answer to a question no one asked?
Jan. 5, 2011 8:30 p.m. MadScientistMatt Dork

I could see fabbing one up if you had a combination lathe/mill type machine. Not something you'd find an off the shelf kit for though.
Jan. 5, 2011 8:56 p.m. JeremyB New Reader

I've never seen a conversion kit for sale, but this place has some complete Ford T-9 sequential gearboxes. Only costs about 5 times the value of your Ranger...

http://www.burtonpower.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=sequential
Jan. 6, 2011 1:42 a.m. turboswede SuperDork

I grabbed some pictures of one that someone built for a Honda CRX.

However, it wasn't all that helpful since the shifts aren't any faster since you still need to use the clutch. So you'd need to go to a dog-box or a button activated clutch pedal with a no-lift shift option on your EFI system.
Jan. 6, 2011 9:39 a.m. ReverendDexter SuperDork

I've seen a JDM-yo! shifter for a T5 that converted it from an H-pattern shifter to an inline pattern, but it was hella expensive and it wasn't even a bump shifter like you're looking for.

And for the record, you have the shifting backwards. You want to push forward to drop a gear and pull towards you to go up a gear; that's how it's set up in rally cars with a sequential, and how Mazda sets up their manual mode shifting on their automatics. Driving both that and the reverse (Subaru's manual mode), pulling towards you to upshift is MUCH more natural.
Jan. 6, 2011 11:10 a.m. itsarebuild Reader

z31maniac wrote:

^Yeah, a sequential trans 21 year old Ford Ranger.

The answer to a question no one asked?

just because no one else asked doesnt mean it doesnt have value.

ever tried shifting in a bouncy as hella ranger off road? it is very easy to miss the gate on the clunky shifter. and what better vehicle to drive quickly across uneven terrain than a 21 year old ranger you dont have to care about....
Jan. 6, 2011 11:35 a.m. YaNi Reader

paul wrote:

they have retrofit kits over in jdm land for certain cars...

http://www.nengun.com/ikeya-formula/sequential-shifter

There is a MAJOR flaw with having a sequential shifter on a transmission with synchronizers. You can't just bang shift like a real dogbox, so you will end up tearing up your trans in short order. Since you still have to shift slowly and clutch there is no performance advantage.
Jan. 6, 2011 11:52 a.m. kb58 Reader

Quaife has them for about $15K-20K... not cheap. As mentioned, unless the gears are changed to a dog-box setup, any sort of half-way measure really can't shift any better or faster than a regular helical syncro box.
Jan. 6, 2011 8:15 p.m. Streetwiseguy HalfDork

Mr Gasket vertical gate shifter. Not so good for downshifts, but...