48 Crown Imperial Limo Gear shifter wire?!??

[thomasrc]

When I inquired about a new shift knob, I was told they "all" have threads to attach, however as you can see with the attached pictures, mine has splines. Tried to twist the spline part off to see about the threads and found there is a WIRE inside the shifter that goes into the steering column, out & thru the firewall and attaches to the carb! It's a Carter one barrel. (yes, I will be replacing some of those tired wires next week)

The service manual & google searches provide no answers. Best guess so far is perhaps when the engine is turned off it moves a solenoid in the carb to prevent dieseling.......but, uh.......

SO to the experts I go - hope someone knows!

TIA

Thomas

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Overdrive?

 

[thomasrc]

There is no overdrive - it’s the Fluid Drive, 1st, 2nd and when you let up on the gas in 2nd it shifts to third

 

[Ross Wooldridge]

Ah - OK. Could it be related to the 2-3 shift at all?

 

[1970cat]

might be a kickdown
interesting reading here 1948 Imperial & Chrysler Service Book - How The Fluid Drive Transmission Works (Session 12A)

 

[Timothy]

I am far from certain, but I will venture a guess that the outer part of shift knob broke away leaving the splined section (shown in picture) which would stop the outer part of the knob from turning and secure them together.
As far as the wire I have no idea

 

[fullsized]

The wire should be the down shift. It makes it so you do not need to floor it to force a down shift.

 

[thomasrc]

The wire should be the down shift. It makes it so you do not need to floor it to force a down shift.

Great to hear from you, thank you!

How does it work? There seems to be different opinions if there was a button at the end of the shifter. I don’t think that is the case - but I’m all ears! Can’t find anything so far.

 

[fullsized]

Great to hear from you, thank you!

How does it work? There seems to be different opinions if there was a button at the end of the shifter. I don’t think that is the case - but I’m all ears! Can’t find anything so far.

There should have been a push button on the end of the shift lever. Lightly push on the gas pedal and then push the button. Do not coast! And you shift pattern is Low range and a high range. In each range it will automatically shift from a 1 to 2nd gear in that range. Low range is rarely used at all (deep mud or snow) 99% of the time you will leave it in high range. Drove a 50 Chrysler for 3 decades. That missing switch is a add on, not factory but often done.