The four speed transmission was first used in a Chevrolet in 1957. This was the Borg Warner T-10. The 4-speed was available in the Corvette from the factory but was also a dealer installed option in the passenger cars. There is at least one documented 57 Chevrolet in existance that has a dealer installed 4-speed transmission. The transmission would have came in the trunk and was to be installed at the dealership. This practice was continued in passenger cars until the Jan-Feb time frame in 1959 when 4 speeds began to be a factory installed option.
Through the 50s, 60s and 70s Chevrolet built alot of cars with floor shifted manual transmisions. The interesting fact about that is that the shifters used were not built by GM. The first floor shiftes used in the 1959 full-size Chevrolets were built by Ansen. Ansen was a company that built shifters and sold many models for a wide variety fo transmissions. Ansen actually made shifters for Studebaker till at least the 1964 model year.
Full-size Chevrolets used Ansen shifters from the introduction of the factory 4-speed transmision in 1959 all the way until the end of the model year in 1963.
The Ansen shifters were predominantly used on the Borg Warner T-10 transmission. Were a lot of confusion begins, in regards to the factory shifters, is when the Muncie transmission was introduced in the early part of the 1963 calendar year. Quite a few early 63 Chevys have T-10 transmissions. The confusion on the shifters comes from the swap of the T-10 to the Muncie. Many people believe that when the Muncie was installed in the 1963 Chevrolets that the Ansen shifter was discontinued and the "Muncie" shifter, with the reverse lock-out, was used. This is incorrect. The Ansen shifter was used through the end of the 1963 model year. I actually have a bench seat Ansen shifter for my 63 Impala with the Muncie linkage. The Muncie linkage, for the Ansen passenger car shifters is very, very hard to find.
There were 2 basic styles of shifter handles used on full-size Chevrolets from 1959-1963. The first used was the "dog-leg" style handle which was used to clear the bench seats. This handle was used in all 1959-63 full-size Chevrolets with bench seats and also on the 1962 Super Sport. The other style of handle is the 1963 Super Sport handle. This handle is straighter with a bend towards the driver near the top of the stick. Sometimes you might see a handle, of either design, that is thicker than most sticks. I haven't been able to pin point an exact date when the thicker handles were introduced but in my estimation it could have been in late 1962 or early 1963. I have a thin 1963 Super Sport handle and a thick 63 SS handle. The thin handle came off a shifter with Muncie linkage as did the thick handle. Thick bench seat handles have been reported to exist but I have never seen one. Studebaker issued a rebuild kit for factory shifters that included a thicker stick and a shim plate to reduce the slop created from the end of the stick gouging into the shifter body. The thinner style handles were prone to bending under "extreme usage"! My bench seat handle was bent forward at least 3 inches when I got it! The thicker handles would have stood up to aggressive shifting better than the thin ones.
For the 1964 model year Chevrolet began to use the reverse lock-out style shifters. Since these were only used on the Muncie transmissions many people call the shifters Muncie shifters. These were made by ITM or Inland Tool and Manufacturing. ITM made shifters for GM for many years, even making shifters for Chrysler. The 1964-67 full-size Chevy shifters had handles with a t-shaped lever near the ball that was lifted to gain access to the reverse gate on the shifter mechanism. The t-handle was attached to a spring loaded cable.
1963 Impala Super Sport thick shifter handle for the Ansen shifters.
1963 Impala Super Sport thin shifter for the Ansen shifters. Note the discoloration at the base of the stick where it was heated with a torch to bend the handle back. No doubt from being bent forward.
Another view of the 63 SS thin handle.
This is a vintage photo of a 1961 SS interior. Note the height of the stick coming through the console. Sometimes damage will be found around the opening for the shifter on the console form the shifter stick striking it during hard shifts.
Here are some pictures of some other Ansen built shifters and sticks not used in Chevrolets.
Here is a rare picture of a Studebaker service replacement shifter stick. This is from 1964. Note the large diameter barstock that was used. It is comparable to the thick stick 63 ss shifter handle. The thinner sticks tapered even to the diameter of the threads.
This is a pair of rare pictures of the factory shifter from a 1962 Pontiac Grand Prix. Some may notice that is very similar to the 1959-62 Corvette 4-speed shifter. The main difference is that the 62 Grand Prix handle is about 11.5 inches long. This handle also has a bend to the right, no doubt to clear the console when shifting into reverse.
The mechanism is different on this shifter, as well as on the 1959-62 Corvette shifter, than the full-size Chevrolet shifter mechanisms. The reverse lockout shifters used a long and skinny coil spring that protruded from the passenger side of the main shift. The Chevy shifters used a shorter and larger diameter coil spring that was held on with an external, contracting snap ring. Under the snap ring was a washer that held the spring under tension. After the spring came a machined cylinder with 3 holes drilled in it perpendicular to the center line of the main shaft of the shifter. Inside the holes was a ball bearing that rode in a groove that was machined into the shifter main shaft. There was also a piece of spring steel that wrapped around the out side of the machined cylinder to cover the drilled holes and to hold the ball bearings in the machined groove in the main shaft. When the shifter was pushed into the reverse gate the ball bearings would be pushed out of the groove and the spring steel would act as a spring and would provide a certain amount of resistance to placing the shifter into the reverse gate. Since the reverse lock-out shifters had a lever actuated reverse lockout the mechanisms were different. The reverse lock out design provided spring tension in all shift gates.
It is not pictured here, but it should be mentioned that the automatic floor shifter for the 1963 Impala SS and the 1963 Nova SS was made by Ansen as well. This shifter was used with the powerglide transmission and unlike later automatic shifters, it bolted to the side of the tail housing rather than the top of the transmission. This required a special tail housing. The stick from the 63 Nova and Impala shifter will work on any Ansen shifter. The shifter body is very similar to the manual transmission shifters.
