Burnt shifter cable today

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Fisher

Fisher

Old Guy with a Cool car.
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well i was lucky to get the car home, but it would appear that i have burnt the shifter cable all to **** against the TTI headers. 71 Big block duster, 727 trans B&M shifter. Debating whether or not to order the longer cable? is there a particular route or secret to this? I had clamped the cable away from the exhaust with a bracket and bolt from the oil pan, i guess that didnt work.
 
Fisher said:
well i was lucky to get the car home, but it would appear that i have burnt the shifter cable all to **** against the TTI headers. 71 Big block duster, 727 trans B&M shifter. Debating whether or not to order the longer cable? is there a particular route or secret to this? I had clamped the cable away from the exhaust with a bracket and bolt from the oil pan, i guess that didnt work.
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Did the same darn thing Fisher, went out for a jaunt, parked in the driveway with it shut off for 10 minutes, came back out to move into garage and shifter would barely move. I have small block with 1 7/8 TTI's. I do have a mini starter and the B and M shifter came with a pretty long cable. I got a shorter cable from Summit and was able to route it better. I also put some heat resistant sheathing around the cable. I hear you, it is a trick. The second time I probably spent 5 hours getting everything correct. I think I even made a small solid bracket to hold it off of the headers. Good Luck!
 
I don't seem to have any problems at the pan edge with my cable, but maybe your pipe gets hotter there than mine.
Routing the cable up under the headers next to the block and then looped back down to the trans and using aluminum wire to secure it in questionable places seemed to work out though.

All those words probably didn't help you one bit did it? :D
Would a heat shield like you see on motorcycle exhausts work?
You know, like the shield design that stands off the pipe a little so you don't fry your leg? (except shielding the cable)
 
Fisher said:
is there a particular route or secret to this?
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Not sure how that particular cable routes, I like my Cheetah because of the cable routing.

When I had my Hurst Promatic in the car, I went to NAPA and bought some of that high heat silcone hose and slid that over the cable where it was close to the exhaust, no problems.

It's pricey, about a 6 bucks a foot, but 3 feet should be enough. The guy at the parts store said it wouldn't burn, and I thought, yeah right. I guarantee you it won't burn, when I brought it home I tried burning the end with my oxy acetylene torch and no dice.

I also have a short piece on my starter cable where it is close to the header.
 
Bad Sport said:
It's pricey, about a 6 bucks a foot, but 3 feet should be enough. The guy at the parts store said it wouldn't burn, and I thought, yeah right. I guarantee you it won't burn, when I brought it home I tried burning the end with my oxy acetylene torch and no dice.

I also have a short piece on my starter cable where it is close to the header.
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Silicone just turns to white dust instead of burning in a traditional sense, but at a really high temp.
You probably noticed the white stuff when you tried to burn it with your torch.
 
Bad Sport said:
Yep I did, but it sure didn't melt.
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I sometimes question weather something that can get that hot and not show it actually does much good because what's inside it can melt anyway and the silicone tubing shows no exterior signs of it happening.
Obviously it does help, but I always had that in the back of my mind when using it.
 
Thank you guys i appreciate the help. Going to go out in the garage this afternoon and assess things?
 
Many have found the solution to be a jump rope length of cable. Spiral route all the way over and around the trans.
 
RedFish said:
Many have found the solution to be a jump rope length of cable. Spiral route all the way over and around the trans.
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That's why I like my Cheetah, the cable goes through the hump, turns down along the right side of the trans and loops back to the bracket/selector point on the trans.
 
Fisher said:
looking into the Cheetah shifter will not be cheap.
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There really isn't anything wrong with the one you have, just need to run that cable away from heat as best you can, and protect it.

Only reason I have mine, is I bought it on here at a good price. Yer right, they ain't cheap.
 
A 4 ft cable will usually stay away from the headers.....also I have used exhaust wrap on the cable ......
 
had a similar issue with headers and my 65 727 shifter cables , in that case i found a thick rubbr fuel line with a same id as the od of that cable . so i slit open that hose and filled it part way with a loctite jelly in a tube , for setting bearing races on spun hubs . its was fluid proff and the added bulk was a insulator , still there today some 30 years back .
 
thank you for all the tips i ordered a new cable, Napa want $14/ft for hose. lol see if i can find something cheaper.
 
Lots of suggestions so far. I routed mine left to right in front of the trans inspection cover with a piece of Thermo-Tec sleeve over it. This is an old pic but you can see it hugs the trans pretty closely.

Exhaust 02b.jpg
 
When I was a kid living on a farm I did a repair on a melted shifter cable with a piece of scrap copper tubing.
Split it and pinch/closed it over the burnt section. No more problem. Didn't even have to reroute away from header. It was a no money fix. Suited me fine at the time.
 
Well turbo action shifter it is. I have to drop the exhaust and the trans to get the damn shifter cable out. Since i am going to this length i am not going to go through this again with this B&M crap.
 
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