i have r3ccently aquired a turbo 400 for my 69 chevelle right now i have a powerglide. when i change to the 400 do i have to buy a new shifter. the one i have now stops after the "L" gear. A 400 would have another gear so how do i get the first gear in the 400 is it just somehitng that will work itself out when i get the new glass faceplate or will i have to buy a new shifter at a swap meet. -Brian

Same shifter, new "lens" in the console. The detents are in the transmission.

Actually, my 69 floorshifter has detents in the shifter. When I went from a TH350 to a 200-4R, I was able to get a detent plate with the correct number of detents from www.shiftworks.com. (http://www.shiftworks.com.)

The Shiftworks kit has a shifter detent plate but it's not needed for the shifter to work. All the shifter detent does is make it so you have to push the button in the handle to come out of park or go back in to park from drive and from drive to lower gears.

The transmission clicks from gear to gear as the shift arm is moved. The length of the shift arm mounted on the trans is the important piece when switching transmissions. The only thing else needed is the correct lense for your application and if you are going from a powerglide you need the pan mounted cable bracket.

You get all the pieces in kit form and since I haven't seen anything but the shift indicator sold by itself you are stuck buying the whole kit...

You also have no reverse lockout without the detent plate.

Originally posted by Georgia69:
You also have no reverse lockout without the detent plate. The reverse is detented in the stock GM detent plate. I don't have them in front of me but I believe the plate in the kit is identical to the GM pg, th350, th400 plate (they used the same one for all 3). For OD applications gears 1 and 2 share the same slide (don't have to push the button to go between them).

You're not getting a lot of needed parts for your $90 with the kits...