Arizona Swinger

The 70 'A' body seems to be the one year Chrysler attempted to do some very funky lock out linkage on the manual transmission. Not only is there clutch linkage with the cross shaft and rods, but also the starter, and the exhaust running through the same general area. This one year attempt to provide a column switch lock out, which meant the car had to be in reverse to get the key out of the column, has proven to be very illusive in locating. I finally decided it might be worth a try to attempt and use the OEM automatic column shift linkage and adapt it for the manual lock out. The cross shaft mounts in the same location, and the two arms are at the same angle as the manual shaft according to pictures I located of an original manual lock out linkage. We did have to shorten the arms, especially on the clutch fork end, and a little bit on the opposite end. I purchased a lower rod and reverse shifter arm swivel with two studs from Brewers for an E body with a small block transmission. (Brewers does have a complete lock out assembly for a B or E Body for about 250.00 dollars, but I did not want to cut up new parts, when my old auto. shifter parts would work just as well and cost a lot less!). All of the parts fit together, and cleared everything just fine, which left only the rod from the column to the cross shaft which is adjustable. This not only has to clear the clutch cross shaft, but also must be adjustable to enable the column arm to be completely down and the shifter fully in reverse. We used the lower rod from the automatic column shift linkage to make this rod. The left over swivel from the reverse shifter linkage was fitted with an adjusting screw and installed onto the end of the rod where the original adjuster for the lower rod was,0 when it was attached to the auto. trans, and then into the column arm. The opposite end of the rod was attached to the cross shaft. Some minor adjustments and now we have a column that must be in reverse for the key to be removed! If in any other gear or neutral the switch will turn off, but will not rotate enough to allow the key to be removed. A little bit of paint and it all looks OEM, and works! Here are some pictures of what we have to work with and will download some more pictures with everything together. Ben.