Copying Dellboy...

[mcflux]

:

It's 95% mechanically "there", just needs a little refining (like umm, selecting Drive properly, hahaha!)

-Dave-

[FordFan86]

good stuff dave... w00t
i better get to try this out :P

[EFFalcon]

lookin good!
can't wait to see it all trimmed up and pretty.

[InitialD]

Good on you dude, What are you going todo about fabricating a centre console?

[Kryton]

whats the 'hint 2'?
i think i might have missed something.
oh and guys please do write a detailed tutorial on this at some stage.

[santoitaliano]

need a new head unit mate ;)

[Walkinshaw]

n2o or shiftkit switch?

[LUXO_8]

i know wat it is i know wat it is
me not sayin though incase dave wants it to be a seclet!

[Stevo]

Gear selection display ?

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by santoitaliano

need a new head unit mate ;)

haha I was going to say the same thing! How do you live!

Gear selection screen would be sweet!

[EFFalcon]

i beleive its as Stevo says, tells what gear he's in like the BA does on the odometre.

[Walkinshaw]

yep that would make sence, seing that the unit/electrics comes with a display, its a good place to mount it.

Hrm.....SSS or T5....

[mcflux]

Woah, I usually have to wait a day or so before getting this amount of replies!!!

OK, Hint 2 is indeed a gear selector indicator. It glows "neon-exhaust-tip" red (not plugged in yet) :p

As for the HU, what's wrong with a stock Ford unit that doesn't work half the time and has a dead FM? (all of the above!) At the moment there's no sound proofing between the extractors & the tranny hole, so the HU isn't getting much use. Plus it matches the shifter ;) ;)

Walkinshaw: I've rewired my cruise control buttons so that the right two buttons (SET ACC and RES) open/close the bottle strapped to the roof

InitialD: The centre console is currently sitting in the boot. It comes off in one piece, all u need to do is to undo four screws (two hidden in console bin, and one either side of console bin near the seat belt anchors. As for the old P-R-N-D-3-2-1 face, I am going to make up a leather or vinyl boot so that it looks manual. It's a cheater's way of making it look OK since the original face won't fit anymore! I think I'll have to cut up some plastic that's under/part of the console though to make the bugger slot back in...

Oh, the electrics haven't been done yet but I've had all the goodies sitting in my boot for the past few weeks... Perhaps on Friday... :eclipsee_

-Dave-

[niko]

im with ya santo....going all classy look with the ba shifter and have ancient headunit lol

looking great btw..

[mcflux]

Personally I would've preferred to have kept the EB T-bar knob, but since the T-bar pushes down and the BA knob pulls up, I couldn't really keep the EB one. The BA one feels lovely & smoooooth though!

But that's just me... I'm also more than happy with my 15" factory rims :

-Dave-

Yes I am not normal!

[Magical_ED]

Hmmm this looks like an awesome mod. Was thinking when i get my p's to do what dellboy said and meet up with him so he could help out etc.

[darkfang888]

Originally Posted by Ghia5L

But that's just me... I'm also more than happy with my 15" factory rims

That shifter looks awesome dude. And you're not the only weird one here - and I'm perfectly happy with my factory option 15"x7 alloys as well.

Maybe it's just something wiht people called Dave...? :

[Psycho Chicken]

Originally Posted by Magical_ED

Hmmm this looks like an awesome mod. Was thinking when i get my p's to do what dellboy said and meet up with him so he could help out etc.

That'll be a long drive!

[mcflux]

Originally Posted by darkfang888

That shifter looks awesome dude. And you're not the only weird one here - and I'm perfectly happy with my factory option 15"x7 alloys as well.

Maybe it's just something wiht people called Dave...? :

:lookedat: It's a problem we both suffer eh! "Mate, you're such a Dave!"


Guys,

As for costs involved, I spent about $220 on the BA goodies, and similar on the electrical side of things ;)

And the fitup of the BA shifter is a real bitch!

-Dave-

[Kryton]

Originally Posted by Ghia5L

And the fitup of the BA shifter is a real bitch!

-Dave-

which is why you guinea pigs should write us a tutorial!:evil_laug
cheers, dave.

[FordFan86]

Originally Posted by davway

which is why you guinea pigs should write us a tutorial!:evil_laug
cheers, dave.

Here here :baby bott :

[santoitaliano]

at the end of the day.. with SSS BA shifter or not..

it's never going to have a clutch..

GO THE SLUSH BOX!!!

[NZ]

invasion of the daves. my middle name is dave

[Kryton]

Originally Posted by five point slow

invasion of the daves. my middle name is dave

who wants to make the poll to find out how many daves there are?

[mcflux]

"Dave's not here" <-- just for you J4M35!

I for one will make up a tutorial (from Dave's point of view), I have *some* photos made, and will make up some illustrations. The illustrations will probably make more sense than the photos.

Ultimately the conversion *will* involve some butchering, namely a hole in the steering column plate for the shifter cable, cutting into the tranny tunnel to fit the BA shifter housing, and most likely cutting up the centre console when putting the console back over the new housing.

The main problem though is getting the damn bracket to the correct dimensions... Calibrating the shifter's P-R-N-D movements to the actual box selecting P-R-N-D will prove to be a pain in the ****. Dellboy should post up his "bracket" :hihi: : for people to see how many "revisions" needed to be made! When/if I can make up a bracket that will calibrate the shifter & box, I will include its dimensions <-- THIS IS CRUCIAL! Currently my bodgy bracket includes part of Pilch's old XC dipstick bracket, and another piece of metal, and the cable is WIRED to this custom bracket! She'll be right...

But add up the cost of a T5 conversion vs SSS, and I think you'll find the choice is obvious (unless you have parkinson's in your left leg and really need a clutch) <-- or chuck a spring under the footrest so you can fake having a clutch :p

Dellboy is the real guinea pig here, he should take full credit for this! I am merely the first sheep to follow :

-Dave-

[EA2BA]

Here is my wonderful bracket, and the mian reason I have not replaced it as it takes 1/2 hour at least to get it just right to select all gears and have the BA SSS able to be selected, so I am not overly keen to take it out and have to re-adjust everything, but I will bite the bullet soon and get it done.

[mcflux]

I now have the electrics wired up! :

Mechanically, the only change I've made is modifying the shifter housing so that the cable sits a couple of mm further back, which has given me D-N-R now (rather than N-R-P). It was easier doing this than playing with the bracket underneath, and park isn't that important (I'll just leave it in D or R when parked on a slope... with the handbrake on of course!)

Electrically, this was dead easy. Instead of playing with hot solder, I cheated & crimped the wires (and then taped up the crimping to restrict movement/pulling out) ;)

After the wiring was done, I then went to test with the multimeter. I did two things wrong though:

1) I probed before earthing
2) I had it set on DCA rather than DC, so when I earthed it on a bolt, it let off a little spark, made a *pop!* noise, and after that none of the wires would give me a reading!

It was a really late night, so instead of trying to investigate the problem I just drove home stuck in 3rd, which really sucked at 2800rpm... This morning when I was a bit more awake, I thought to check the fuse box. Yep, the auto fuse had blown, so I pulled out the ciggy lighter fuse and replaced. Bingo! Problem solved!

Before I got stuck into the electrics, we were playing around with two other Fords at my mate's place : One being his mum's EF Ghia and the other being his EA Ghia. The EA recently suffered a cracked head, and has been leaving puddles of "Baileys" everywhere! It runs like an absolute pig, but he's replacing the head on Tuesday. It was quite funny trying to start it, coz we were using its towbar as a battering ram for something we were doing for the EF :

We were trying to replace the front springs in the EF (without tools), so to get the spring "loaded" on the strut, we had it against a steel beam which was part of the carport's structure, and my mate was backing the EA into the strut to try & make the bugger fit! I stood a fair distance away... :gren:

That didn't work, so we ended up using a doorway and a scissor jack, which amazingly did the trick! Just lay the spring & strut in the doorway, put the jack at the other end, and wound it up until it pressed hard against the spring and "loaded" it on the strut. Once again I stood well away, but this wasn't nearly as dodgy as using the EA as a sledge hammer!

It was a late night...

So, the BA shifter works (except Park, but firmly selects the other gears), and its electrics work too! Some quick notes on how I think it performs:

1) I need to get used to the shifting. It has a bit of a lag, and I nearly zinged it in 1st (it went to 6k before changing, when I "shifted" at 5k, WOT)

2) Due to 1, I should look into a shift kit

3) It holds the gears to (beyond?) the redline, but if you're say in 1st doing 60kph and back off, the torque converter disengages and it cruises just above idle speed. If you reapply the throttle, it doesn't smack you in the back of the head like it used to, it smoothly (but quickly) fully re-engages.

4) I haven't had much time to really play around with it on the open road, but it seems that when in SSS mode it won't go above 3rd, and that you have to switch back to D to get 4th. The upside to this though is if you're preparing to overtake a car, you flick it to SSS and it engages 3rd automatically, and then you just flick it forwards once (to 2nd) and boot it, and she goes hard!

5) I just love it! The gear select indicator is so cool too, going thru the gears as you drive ;)

I'll post up some pix sometime soon, plus some aspects of an installation report (Version Dave)

-Dave-

[LUXO_8]

even in BA's, the sss wont engage 4th

so im told

[Kryton]

Originally Posted by MADNC_8

even in BA's, the sss wont engage 4th

so im told

well whats the fun of that?
will the 5 or 6 speed auto (what ever the hell they have or are getting?) have SSS?

[Peuty]

Don't see why it wouldn't davway