Last year of pushbutton trans

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krazykuda

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I have a little disagreement with another member (who will be unnamed). He says the last year for pushbutton transmissions was 64, and I say 65. Who is correct? :poke: :boxing: :pain10: :argue:
 
64 but the same trans was used for 65 with the column and floor cable shift.

Agreed. My '65 Formula S (delivered to customer in November '64, according to the plate on the glovebox door) and it has a Floorshift 904, with the pushbutton style cable shift transmission
 
1964 was the last year for pushbutton as well as ball and trunnion driveshafts. The '65 transmission used the same cable setup as the '64 transmission and used slip yoke shaft.
 
1964 was the last year for pushbutton as well as ball and trunnion driveshafts. The '65 transmission used the same cable setup as the '64 transmission and used slip yoke shaft.

Nope. 65 saw the end of the push button setup. That much is true. But the ball and trunion and cable shift continued into 1965.
 
1964 was the last year for pushbutton as well as ball and trunnion driveshafts. The '65 transmission used the same cable setup as the '64 transmission and used slip yoke shaft.

Like strokerscamp said. They had the ball and trunion driveshaft in 65. I bought the drivetrain out of a coworker's 65 Barracuda 273 car and it had the ball and trunion driveshaft and pushbutton trans.

Thanks Stroker...
 
The first Torqueflites provided three speeds forward plus reverse. Gear ratios were 2.45:1 in first, 1.45 in second, and 1.00 in third. The transmission was controlled by a series of pushbuttons located on the vehicle's dashboard. The buttons were generally at the extreme driver's side end of the dash, i.e., the left in left-hand drive vehicles, and the right in right-hand drive ones. However, this was not always the case; the 1962 Dodge Phoenix, a right-hand drive export model sold in Australia and South Africa, used the U.S. 1962 Plymouth Valiant instrument cluster assembly, into the left end of which were integrated the transmission pushbuttons. Button arrangement varied by vehicle model and year; sequence was Reverse, Neutral, Drive, Second, and First, from top to bottom with vertically-arrayed buttons, from left to right with horizontally-arrayed buttons, and clockwise starting at upper left with clustered buttons.

A parking lock was not provided until the advent of the aluminum-case Torqueflites in 1960 (standard-duty A-904) and 1962 (heavy-duty A-727), at which point a lever was added adjacent to the pushbuttons: Throwing the lever to the "Park" position placed the car into Neutral and engaged a lock pawl on the transmission's output shaft. Throwing the park lever out of "Park" position unlocked the shift buttons so that a driving range could be selected. The buttons were replaced by conventional steering column- or floor-mounted shift levers in all automatic Chrysler-built vehicles for the 1965 model year, though floor levers were available in certain sporty 1964 models.
 
On a 727 they were cable operated in 65 but changed to a slip yoke. 65 BB trans is a very hard part to find and racers of 65 cars need them to be correct.
 
More trivia. Why doesn't the front pump work in park, only in neutral?

Because when Mopar went from push button, they kept the same valve body, doing the cheap. That's why the pump still won't operate in park. got a high stall? get everything warmed up in neutral.
 
More trivia. Why doesn't the front pump work in park, only in neutral?

Because when Mopar went from push button, they kept the same valve body, doing the cheap. That's why the pump still won't operate in park. got a high stall? get everything warmed up in neutral.

Puzackly. This is why you need to check the fluid in neutral. Good info your almighty greenness.
 
More trivia. Why doesn't the front pump work in park, only in neutral?

Because when Mopar went from push button, they kept the same valve body, doing the cheap. That's why the pump still won't operate in park. got a high stall? get everything warmed up in neutral.

A good reason to install a shift kit, for the pump in park function.

I always install a kit any time I drop the pan on a 904/727.
 
So to sum this up, Ma Mopar used the pushbutton control on the dash the last yr in 64? Seein how they weren't gona throw away the 64 trannys they used em in the 65 models with another idea on the shifting mechanism other than the dash mounted push button?
Small Block
 
So to sum this up, Ma Mopar used the pushbutton control on the dash the last yr in 64? Seein how they weren't gona throw away the 64 trannys they used em in the 65 models with another idea on the shifting mechanism other than the dash mounted push button?
Small Block

That's right. Both the column shifter and floor shifters for 65 were still cable operated with the old style ball and trunnion trans. At least in the A bodies. The B bodies had a one year only (I believe) cable shift slip yoke transmission.
 
OK, heres an eyewitness account of the interchangeability of pushbutton components.....

Back in the early 90's I was working on my 64 Belvedere and was doing a motor swap from smallblock to bigblock. I had a bigblock 727 trans out of a 65 Newport but it had the ball and trunnion tailshaft and cable shifted park and shift. I wanted a slip joint tailshaft and my trans guy told me to find a tailshaft from another 65 with the slipjoint. I didn't know there was such a beast back then, but I went to a local junkyard I had been frequenting where I knew there were a lot of Mopars. There, lying on its side, was a 65 Coronet 4 door car with a 273/auto. The trans was a cable shifted design with the slip joint tailshaft and cable actuated park. I bought the entire trans and took both my bigblock and smallblock ones to my trans guy and voila, when I picked it up I had me a cable shifted bigblock trans with the cable actuated park and slipjoint tailshaft, all from 65 parts cars!!!

Using up parts in 65?? I think so!!! Geof
 
We were talking about the slant 6 or 273 with 904 vintage.

I'm interested in the answer because I bought Bruce's 65 Dart Wagon and they say that it is stuck in 1st gear. I can't remember what shifter is has, but Waggs told me that it had the pushbutton cable shift trans in it.

I have a great trans guy in Detroit that I will take it to to get it fixed, but wanted to know which other transes I should bring for him to use/swap in just in case. I have one from a 66, but that may mean that I would have to convert it to the conventional linkage. Or should I use a cable shift trans that I may have one already built and ready to drop in, but I don't quite know how it will all hook up. The wagon has a slant 6 in it. I should have at least one of each transes spare in my wood room that I can bring JIC. I will then have the trans that was taken out rebuilt also.

I'm trying to figure out how to go about getting it fixed. :dontknow: :scratch:
 
IIRC, the main reason Chrysler discontinued the push buttons in '64, was because of federal pressure, and please correct me if I'm wrong. They claimed that people were getting confused as to what button to push for the direction they wanted to go in!
Even then they couldn't figure out what D or R meant!!!
 
Even then they couldn't figure out what D or R meant!!!

My dad makes jokes about that all the time. "Put er' in "R", for Race, and put the throttle to the floor" :D

Edit :

and it's not really a surprise, ma mopar, using up older parts in a newer production run. I've seen it a lot, on untouched/original vehicles.

I was once told, that workers were offered bonuses if they could use up older parts first.
 
IIRC, the main reason Chrysler discontinued the push buttons in '64, was because of federal pressure, and please correct me if I'm wrong.

Yer wrong.
redbeard.gif


There was no Federal agency, organization, body, board, or anything of the sort to exert any such pressure in 1964. The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 wasn't passed until the middle of (derp) 1966, and the first Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards didn't take effect until 1968. The replacement of pushbuttons with levers was not safety-related; in fact, even that yutz Ralph Nader thought the pushbuttons were superior from the safety standpoint (and he was right).

No, the buttons were dropped broadly because they belonged to the era of tailfins and spaceship dashboards and square steering wheels and under-dash record players. Tastes and preferences and trends were moving on. They were dropped narrowly because driver-instruction programs (which were at the time nearly universal in high schools) were avoiding Chrysler products because of what was perceived as their nonstandard/unusual transmission control. Chrysler felt strongly that it was valuable to get new drivers accustomed to Chrysler products as early as possible, so given that there was no particular reason to keep the buttons, a broad reason and at least one narrow reason (also lower cost for a lever, also less dashboard design restriction) to get rid of them, they went away.
 
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