How to disable a Mega-shifter

[4x4xTOR]

I have a B&m truck Mega-shifter. Does any one know or have pictures of what needs to be filed to eliminate the reverse lock out feature? As any one who owns one knows, they suck when you need to do a lot of forward and reverse shifting. I only use my bronco off-road and only "I" drive it. I have heard it can be done. Thanks. TOR

 

[GoFastCrackPipe]

I would like to know as well...

 

[SaddleUp]

As any one who owns one knows, they suck when you need to do a lot of forward and reverse shifting.

Hmmm... Maybe they changed them. Mine shifts easily between drive and reverse. Just pull up on the T and I can go back and forth all day. Never need to worry about hitting reverse either when I want neutral. Just push it forward from drive without pulling the T. (I would never want to completely eliminate the reverse lockout as it is an important safety feature that all cars have, I just want to be able to easily work it with one hand so I can go back and forth if I want) The Hurst shifter I use to have was another story altogether. It literally took 2 hands to unlock the reverse lockout and it was subjected to a great deal of verbal abuse and swearing. I still hate it now even though it's been gone for a couple of years.

 

[4x4xTOR]

I guess I should have been more descriptive. I want to shift from drive to reverse WITHOUT lifting the "T" handle. And vice-versa. Anyone?TOR

 

[76 bronco J]

Hmmm... Maybe they changed them. Mine shifts easily between drive and reverse. Just pull up on the T and I can go back and forth all day. Never need to worry about hitting reverse either when I want neutral. Just push it forward from drive without pulling the T. (I would never want to completely eliminate the reverse lockout as it is an important safety feature that all cars have, I just want to be able to easily work it with one hand so I can go back and forth if I want) The Hurst shifter I use to have was another story altogether. It literally took 2 hands to unlock the reverse lockout and it was subjected to a great deal of verbal abuse and swearing. I still hate it now even though it's been gone for a couple of years.

---all cars don't have a reverse lock out safety feature on the auto trans shifters,, infact I'm have a hard time thinking of any mass produced vehicle that does-- I realize lots of new cars you have to step on the brake to shift out of park ,but I've never seen a reverse lock out

 

[76 bronco J]

---below are some pics of the parts I removed from the B&M pro rachet to disable the reverse lock out-- all that was required was to grind the pin off in the second pic-- to figure out how to disable the mega shifter simply remove the outer cover then move the reverse lockout lever while taking notes on what does what-- this is without a doubt a great modification unless your worried about being NHRA legal-- the comment about liking the reverse lockout to keep from going into reverse while putting it in nuetral makes no sense because that's what the rachet action is there in the first place when rowing through the other gears and is equally effective from going to drive to nuetral without passing it up--- the reverse lockout is strictly a maximum safety feature for drag strip cars & even though it's a one handed easy deal on the pro rachet it still sucks compared to free racheting with no BS levers

 

[eb66to77]

I had an old Cherokee that I took a dremel to in order to get the smooth transition. I just took the cover off of the shifter and took a look at it. It shouldn't be that hard to figure out which areas need triming.

 

[SaddleUp]

---all cars don't have a reverse lock out safety feature on the auto trans shifters,, infact I'm have a hard time thinking of any mass produced vehicle that does-- I realize lots of new cars you have to step on the brake to shift out of park ,but I've never seen a reverse lock out

I've never owned an automatic that didn't have a reverse lockout that I can recall. My 69 Barracuda and 67 Mustang even had them. My 97 Explorer and my wifes 94 Camaro have them and the 20 odd other automatic cars I've owned all had them. People just don't normally associate them as being such. The reverse lockout is nothing more than a lever or button which must be either pulled or depressed before it will allow it to be shifted from drive to reverse. On a column shifter this usually is nothing more than pulling the shifter towards you. On most floor shifts it is either a button in the top center that is depressed or a button on the side of the handle that must be depressed. The only difference with the B&M shifter is that it is a T that needs to be pulled up instead of being a button to depress.

 

[eb66to77]

Yeah, I agree with Saddleup. From what I have experienced every single automatic I have owned has had one and most sports car shifters are like it manual or automatic. I ahven't seen them on too many truck trannies but it is real easy to do with a side shifter tranny as everything works aside the case.

 

[76 bronco J]

I've never owned an automatic that didn't have a reverse lockout that I can recall. My 69 Barracuda and 67 Mustang even had them. My 97 Explorer and my wifes 94 Camaro have them and the 20 odd other automatic cars I've owned all had them. People just don't normally associate them as being such. The reverse lockout is nothing more than a lever or button which must be either pulled or depressed before it will allow it to be shifted from drive to reverse. On a column shifter this usually is nothing more than pulling the shifter towards you. On most floor shifts it is either a button in the top center that is depressed or a button on the side of the handle that must be depressed. The only difference with the B&M shifter is that it is a T that needs to be pulled up instead of being a button to depress.

----I realize all cars have a park position lock which locks and keeps you from freely going out of park to reverse with a button or pulling towards you with the stock column shifter or pressing the brakes on newer cars ,but I still say most if not all do not have a reverse lockout to stop you from freely going strait from drive to reverse,,maybe the newer cars are different ,but those old cars named had a park lock out only

 

[bronko69er]

I'm on saddleup's side as well, can give us all an example of a car that did not come with a reverse lockout? I've never heard of one either.

 

[76 bronco J]

----ok ,I maybe wrong-- ,but still with the pronounced shifting action of a rachet shifter there's no need for the reverse lock out lever unless you have some NHRA official worried about you running over them at the staging lines,, the only way to accidentally go into reverese with a racheting action is to forget which way your shifting & if you put one of these racheting drag race type shifters in your vehicle disabling the reverse lockout is without a doubt the best mod you can do to it--everybody who has done this mod to there shifters has always wished they had done it sooner

 

[bronko69er]

I had a buddy who put a 302 into a 2 wheel drive ranger and had a floor shifter without a reverse lockout. The first week after the conversion he totaled his truck. His dog knocked the shifter into reverse at 55mph and ended up upside-down in the ditch. Thankfully no one was hurt. That would be my only concern, the accidental shift. I agree that it is an inconvenience at times but I bet my buddy wishes he had not removed his lockout. To each his own.

 

[76 bronco J]

I had a buddy who put a 302 into a 2 wheel drive ranger and had a floor shifter without a reverse lockout. The first week after the conversion he totaled his truck. His dog knocked the shifter into reverse at 55mph and ended up upside-down in the ditch. Thankfully no one was hurt. That would be my only concern, the accidental shift. I agree that it is an inconvenience at times but I bet my buddy wishes he had not removed his lockout. To each his own.

--- for that scenario to happen with a rachet shifter the dog would have to hit the lever to move it into nuetral & then let it retract then hit the shifter a second time without you realizing you are in nuetral which seems highly unlikley

 

[SaddleUp]

If the ratchet design keeps you from shifting directly from drive to reverse (I've never tried using mine that way) then I don't see any point to removing the lockout. The only reason I could see for doing so would be to shift from drive to reverse quickly without pulling the handle up. I.E. When rocking back and forth in deep mud. It sounds like the handle would still need to be pulled for this. If so then I don't see the point.

In my opinion this is one of those "Sounds Cool" mods that are popular simply because people think they gain something by doing it. I've even heard several people say that removing the lockout makes it more like a stock shifter as though stock ones didn't have them. Since I seldom ever ratchet mine I've found that it shifts just like any other stock shifter as long as I associate the t handle as being the same as a push button on a stock shifter.

As I said though already that is just my opinion. I've found that the shifter works great the way it is and I have no problems shifting it from drive to reverse if needed to rock back and forth when I'm buried in mud. (Which I try to avoid anymore since cleanup afterwards is such a pain)

 

[Quick & Dirty]

There is an old write up on pirate. Not sure how similar the shifters are.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176665

 

[4x4xTOR]

Boy, I didn't want to start an argument or a debate. But it sure opens a guys eyes to a different point of view! I appreciate the responses. I think I found what i was looking for. Quick&Dirty, you are leading me down the trail I think I want to follow, thanks.TOR

 

[76 bronco J]

There is an old write up on pirate. Not sure how similar the shifters are.

http://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=176665

----I'm starting to see what the issue is after looking at that link & several other places,, the pro rachet I have is different internally,, mine has no gate system at all the mechanism is purely racheting and always returns to center -no matter what gear I'm in from park ,reverse,nuetral & any forward the shifter is always in the exact same position,, for the reverse lockout when it was there you simply nudged it then it would lock & stay in position by itself while you racheted into reverse then spring back by itself,, the pro rachet forces you to use a racheting motion for every shift instead going through some gate system to get to reverse,, it's not like say the racheting quicksilver with a partial gate system which has to be in drive to get to reverse-is the mega shifter like that? ,, in stock form the pro rachet will allow free racheting from park to reverse but when racheting up from drive(or first if it's a reverse valve body) it's stop after you rachet into nuetral then you have to reach over & nudge the lockout lever into positon then it allows shifting to reverse from the nuetral position & the lockout lever springs back by itself into position for the cycle to repeat----about the going into reverse thing at speed ,,, I have mine mounted backwards because the pro rachet only comes in forward exit cable version ,but the way mine is bolted to the dash I needed a rear exit,, anyway this has cause me more than once to forget which vehicle I was in & rachet into nuetral instead of downshifting as intended ,,when this happens you are back to being alert very quickly & surely will not repeat the same motion you just did a few seconds agohttp://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=363036---- edit.-link added that's talks about disabling the pro rachet without removing anything like I did & by simply moving the lockout lever on it slightly forward then tack welding it-- it seems the pro rachet is the most friendly towards reverse lockout removal thing with its full racheting motion

 

[SaddleUp]

----I'm starting to see what the issue is after looking at that link & several other places,, the pro rachet I have is different internally,, mine has no gate system at all the mechanism is purely racheting and always returns to center -no matter what gear I'm in from park ,reverse,nuetral & any forward the shifter is always in the exact same position,, for the reverse lockout when it was there you simply nudged it then it would lock & stay in position by itself while you racheted into reverse then spring back by itself,, the pro rachet forces you to use a racheting motion for every shift instead going through some gate system to get to reverse,, it's not like say the racheting quicksilver with a partial gate system which has to be in drive to get to reverse-is the mega shifter like that? ,, in stock form the pro rachet will allow free racheting from park to reverse but when racheting up from drive(or first if it's a reverse valve body) it's stop after you rachet into nuetral then you have to reach over & nudge the lockout lever into positon then it allows shifting to reverse from the nuetral position & the lockout lever springs back by itself into position for the cycle to repeat----about the going into reverse thing at speed ,,, I have mine mounted backwards because the pro rachet only comes in forward exit cable version ,but the way mine is bolted to the dash I needed a rear exit,, anyway this has cause me more than once to forget which vehicle I was in & rachet into nuetral instead of downshifting as intended ,,when this happens you are back to being alert very quickly & surely will not repeat the same motion you just did a few seconds agohttp://pirate4x4.com/forum/showthread.php?t=363036---- edit.-link added that's talks about disabling the pro rachet without removing anything like I did & by simply moving the lockout lever on it slightly forward then tack welding it-- it seems the pro rachet is the most friendly towards reverse lockout removal thing with its full racheting motion

That doesn't sound much like the Megashifter. It can be used either ratheting or normally. I.E. You can slap the shifter to go between 1 and 2, and 2 and D. I've never slapped it into neutral so I don't know if it ratchets there or not but it definately will not go past neutral to reverse unless the T is pulled. With the t pulled though (A one hand operation) it easily shifts between drive and reverse.

 

[76 bronco J]

That doesn't sound much like the Megashifter. It can be used either ratheting or normally. I.E. You can slap the shifter to go between 1 and 2, and 2 and D. I've never slapped it into neutral so I don't know if it ratchets there or not but it definately will not go past neutral to reverse unless the T is pulled. With the t pulled though (A one hand operation) it easily shifts between drive and reverse.

--- the pro rachet reverse lockout is a one handed operation also with the palm still on the shifter as you flick the lever unless your fingers are only 2 inches long ,, very easy,,but it still sucks compared to it not being there