Ok, I'm one of the many thirdgeneers with a 4th gen center console in my 3rd gen. I have the stock auto trans. I decided to go with the an auto 4th gen trans console. Which I was able to successfully fit, but since the shifter is bigger on the 3rd gen, the console was higher and forward than the stock piece...which means my stock radio pod was not an option. For the longest time, I just made a makeshift... and undesireable... looking radio pod. So now that were in the middle of carshow/event season, I finally got tired and embarrassed of my crappy, non stock radio "box".
So I broke down and got a 5 speed upper console from a 4th gen. The main thing (and main reason I went with 4th gen auto console) is the gear indicator. Knowing which gear I was on is nice. I know exactly what gear and what position the shifter is in by the position of the shifter, but on the rare occasion another person drove my car, I didn't want them accidentally putting it in reverse and smashing my car... So I thought of a way to put a gear indicator on my dash bezel. I got a regular gear indicator from a Sunbird or some other 90's Pontiac from the boneyard (since the backlighting is orange to match the dash) and cut out the appropriate section and the light isolator from the back. I installed an LED right behind each of the 7 indications and wired one end to ign positive (to come on when the key is in) and I put the negative on the shifter. I made sure the shift-shaft was grounded and then put a parallel plate that has the 7 contact points that corresponds to each indication. So every time its in a gear, the correct light would be grounded and light up. I know, its not the most professional looking thing, but there are plenty of Firebird bezels from the junkyard I can work on to make it better. The "mechanism" itself is nicely hidden bellow the shifter boot. I must say the interior looks much better and neater with the stock radio pod and correct height of the center console than previously. Let me know what you think of any tips to make it work better...

 

A few more pics of the indicator...

*edit* I know, I forgot 1st gear on the last pic, but you get the picture

 

I REALLY like this mod you did. I was thinking about doing something likethis to my firebird, but never got around to it I think now I am going to have to, seeing as how straight forward it is. Great job!!

 

thanks for the compliment. I think there have been a few threads on here talking about such mod, but I think mainly for manual trannys... The thing that also helped ALOT is the fact that I had 5-wire cable laying around. So the brown cable (where the colors are coming out of) is very easy to route. The other two where just wrapped around the cable...

 

Please don't take this personally against what you did because I think it's very creative, but I see this kind of topic in threads a lot and I just have to ask a question. Can't guys with automatics that want to use a 4th gen center console relocate their original shifter so it lines up with the 4th gen automatic console? It can't be that hard to fabricate a relocation bracket for it. If I went auto, i'd never want to live with a shifter boot and no indicator for what gear i'm in. It just seems like the lazy way out and makes it harder for guys that want to find a manual tranny 4th gen center console. Am I missing something in my thinking?

Just to be clear that I'm not knocking your work in any way, I do realize that you now have a gear indicator, so you've found a very creative way around one of the drawbacks of using a manual shifter boot. I just don't see how relocating the original shifter to line up, or using a 4th gen shifter assembly located to line up with the center console, could possibly be more work than what you did.

 

My STOCK 87 auto console has a shifter boot like a manual, yet has a PRND@321 indicator beside it, but the indicator doesn't light up.

I could use this idea to make mine light up too.

 

that is cool as **** i gotta say dont be surprised if i steal this idea from you even though ive got my original console id like it to light up what gear im in cuz its hard to tell at night so im doin the "over drive to neutral boogie" to see what gear im in which sucks

 

Definitely understand and respect what you're saying. I did love the much cleaner look of the [4th gen] auto console when I had it, but I tried various things...and I'll be honest, I didn't try hard, but I tried moving the shifter as far back as possible, I never made any sort of relocation brackets or anything. My main problem was that the shifter cable (tv cable?) did not have enough "slack" to move it as far back as needed. Another main unavoidable obstacle is that the 3rd gen shifter is MUCH higher/taller/fatter than the 4th gen shifter... so the overall height of the entire center console must be raised. No matter how far back you move the shifter, its still too tall for the stock radio pod. Like I said, I had to make may own little radio pod that was about 25% to 34% shorter. I didn't want to do a shifter swap for a 4th gen since I might as well get a megashifter or something. Which a shifter boot allows for future shifter possibilities.

Like Stephen, my 87 didn't have an actual indicator on it, just a label of the gears. I thought it was broken until I saw the bottom and realized there was no provisioning for the indicator...needle. I don't mind if anybody uses the idea, I'm glad if people do because I'm sure someone will find a better, cleaner way to do it

I actually wanted to find a smaller gear indicator panel since I wanted something that would fit bellow the turn signal/highbeam indicators on the bezel, that would be great spot, but I don't think GM makes a dash with font that small...

 

Neat concept. I'm in the process of installing a 4th gen manual console with a Hurst Pro-matic 2 shifter. I like the looks of a shift boot rather than a regular automatic console. I'm having to remove the brackets that the stock shifter rests on for the Hurst shifter, and I had hoped to somehow use the Hurst gear indicator through the shift boot without it looking crappy. I started looking at other cars that came from the factory with a shift boot and a gear indicator to get some ideas. I found that the C5 vette automatics came with one, but have yet to see one up close to see how the indicator works.

 

thats really slick! I dont really mind not knowing what gear I'm in, but thats definitely handy. Are you gonna trim that out, where your cut marks are?

 

yeah, I going to go to the junkyard and find another firebird gauge bezel and take my time and make it look clean...

 

Very nice. I am in a similar situation but I am molding 2000ish caddie auto shift bezel into my 6spd console top. I also may consider trying to get the gated shifter from a OLDSMOBILE aurora in there. But that's another story.

 

just a quick question on fitting, I have a 85 z28, the radio pod and console is one piece, will the radio pod from a third gen TA bolt in along with the forth gen center console?

I have been thinking about doing the swap and finding that most of these conversions are with TA's and firebirds.

 

That gear selector looks great,keeping the pontiac orange lighting is awsome too.I was wondering how you got these pics up.When I try to post a pic it says the file exceeds the forum 1.00mb bytes limit and youre pics are a lot more than that,how did you get youre pics up?

 

I'm not 100% sure on the fitment on for Camaros. But I have seen it plenty of times with the Firebird radio pod. I'd do a search.

 

Ive thought about this problem, but never got around to getting a 4th gen console. I owned a 3rd gen console at one time without the indicators, and it drove me crazy.

Being somewhat a nerd, I have a few things to propose.

First is using some non-contact method of sensing what gear position you are in. This could be accomplished by using magnetic switches or opto-beam-breaking. Would be more reliable it seems to me.

Second would be using a single dot-matrix or 13 segment display to show the gear, it would say "N", "D", etc and change accordingly. Its a little pricey, but could also use this http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/pro...oducts_id=8492
All of which would require less footprint or cutout on the dash etc.

If a bunch of people are interested, I could look at fabbing up a circuit.

 

Hell, I'd be interested! I'm not sure about the magnetic switches reason being that my shifter (which will be replaced by a megashifter) is not as tight as it was when it first came off the assembly line. There is a little bit of wiggle room on the shifter when in a gear (as in a few millimeters, nothing drastic). I'm working on making something smaller and more precise, but this has been working good so far... But I would love to know more about the dot-matrix display and/or 13 segment display...

 

Yeah I havent look at the mechanics of the shifter in quite some time. This is what the slotted optical switch looks like
http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/121...-opb815wz.html
So when an opaque object passes thru it breaks the infrared beam and acts as a switch. You can usually pull the two sides apart for installation if need be.

This is two examples of the displays.

 

example magnetic reed switch
http://parts.digikey.com/1/parts/957...-ri-23aaa.html

 

If I had the $$ I would definitely do a reed switch settup... I would love doing an LED settup...

 

This info may be to late but when I first installed my 4th gen dash and console I still had an auto. So I replaced the 3rd gen shifter with the 4th gen shifter. The TV cable and the steering wheel lock cable attached the same even the wires for the reverse lights were the same IIRC.

 

Would you be able to take a dremel and just cut out the area on the auto 4th gen console to make the 3rd gen shifter work. Then put a leather boot back on it, but still have the gear indicator?

 

That's really cool looking, nice job.

 

very nice!

 

thank you

 

no prob, if you were closer id pay you to do mine!

 

This something I wouldnt mind trying on my ride.

Tony.

 

Hey back again i'm gonna try do domething like this if i get a chance to. For the reason is that my car came with an auto and I got the 5 speed shifter plate so for people that needs to my car would need to know what gear there in like what you said. Of course I know right of the back. Do you know of other cars that came with something like this?

Tony.

 

what exactly are you referring to? I mainly got my influence from alot of the newer cars that have the gear selector right on the dash in the gauges.