novice gryphon tamer

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 Morning All,
Just been slowly working through my RWC list (which was very short) and have come to the point of putting back an origanal shifter.
                               


but the current shifter linkage looks like this................

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.....and the original looks like this............

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....which makes me look like this........

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....sooo I'm pretty sure the wise Gryphon Guru (blackbedford) told me how to deal with this, but in my green eared excitment I forgot what he said.
the current set up is blue motor and reco trimatic with perhaps a commodore shift, the selector shaft is on passenger side and the original seems set up for the selector on the drivers side.....or am I missing some thing ((now be nice )

The mission is to get drive indication both during the day and a night. it may be easier to source the right console for the current shifter but the original seems to be at a more useful height.....what do you guy's reckon?

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.....oh and whilst I'm at it.....
I think I have some sort of steering issue, as in it steers like a two ton shopping trolley, there seems to be minimal castor and the rack feels over tight and lumpy.....one person I had look at it shrugged his shoulders and said "typical bedford".....but he is obviously not a true believer.....

is this steering thing a common problem or is it just me?

[hammers_spanners]

Gday Ollie Camber/Castor adjustment is not issue as there is buga all! Keep the tyres pumped up. The rack may need lubricating. If one of the boots had split dirt gets in and mixes with the lube. May need to be stripped down and cleaned. No big deal I can do a change over for you.

Commodore trimatics have the shifter on the passenger side while Holden, Toranas & Bedfords are on the drivers side.

Cheers

Craig

[Brett]

I grabbed a b&m shifter.you can mount it wherever you want and the cable runs to either side. mines a trimatic with the shifty thing on the driver side.

[BlackBedford]

G'day

The shifter and gearbox in the van are Commodore.
The Bedford shifter will fit. Holes will have to be redrilled to change the leverage effect. The way to do it is put the shifter and the gearbox in Park and mark an arc on the gearshift arm with the rod. Then put the shifter and the gearbox in 1st gear and mark an arc on the gearshift arm with the rod again. Where the 2 arcs cross is the correct point for the new hole.

The EB steering wheel is a little smaller diameter than a CF wheel which may make it a little harder to turn. The boots on the steering rack were OK so it may be worth jacking up the front end and checking it in the air.

Regards

[photol]

Thanks Guy's,
I'm going to have a go at blackbedfords idea and see if I can get the original to work.

Craig I'd like to take you up on your offer, even if you could just show me how to go about it,
also wouldn't mind for you to cast your trained eye over the front end as I have a feeling that the under side has been "stumped" at some point. I'd expect you to take some remuneration for your efforts and or change over of course....

I've got a couple of weeks off and after that fridays or the weekend is good, let me know if any of this suits.....

                                                          cheers Ol'

[photol]

Thanks Craig, I;ll give you a call tomorrow.

The CFL is "fantastic", although for the first couple of days I think I suffered from "post bedford acquisition psychosis" (BAP for short). This was attributed to the fact that I'd been driving a mates Camry Wagon, two liter twin cam five speed pwr steering, but it goes too hard. I'm not good at fast driving, sooner or later I end up in a ditch.

The LWB on the other hand is a different driving consciousness altogether, "cruis-o-matic", sitting high and dry, able to see into the traffic, little cars scuttle around you like flies, you can stare a truck driver in the eye, (not for too long though).

It's magic, as though you gain in time, the world moves slightly slower.....

There are some challenges,
the LWB windowless has a blind spot on the left hand side the size of an eighteen wheeler, driving by mirrors is ok though, just got to learn to "believe" in them, I guess        its a bitch to reverse park.      Fuel costs have gone up 35%(not too bad I thought)
this particular LWB is very squeaky, (ironically squeaky clean). the state of the steering means I 'm too busy at the wheel , can't enjoy reading Saturday's Age whilst eating morning tea, suckin' on a Latte, rollin' a ciggy and talkin' to the missus on the phone at the moment.

But that's all highly acceptable given the gains.....I mean its a 31 year old Long Wheel Base bedford for Christ's sake, how good is that !!!... Driving it is fun, I'm getting used to powering into the corners, the 202 does a good job of pushing two plus tonne around the country side.....

I keep staring into the half yellow abyss that is the back and dreaming of all the potential combination's of practical ...(or not) applications it has.....in short I have a kinda CARma Contentedness that only a bedford can supply.....which is actually a very weird thing, perhaps I need therapy......
                                                                  think I'll go and have my medication now