Having trouble with my Promatic 2 shifter... Ideas???

[1970dartcustom]

It seemed like a cool Idea to change my column shift to a floor shift/automatic, but it is not positive/reliable when shifting, and I am worried to wind it up and blow the motor shifting and having it not go to the next gear... My Dad's does the same thing so he just leaves it in automatic all the time...
But the reason I did this setup was to be able to do both!

Anybody have experience with this or know what to do??? Had a good tranny guy put it in, but he isn't super experienced with these...

 

[j par]

Is it a stock floor shifter? either way if it's aftermarket or stock, either it's a misadjustment in the linkage or a wrong piece of linkage. Or a worn-out piece of linkage.

 

[j par]

The misadjustment is just making it stick in between gears or holding it in between.

 

[Fisher]

I ran that shifter in a few different vehicles, and i have never had an issue. You need to check the adjustment in park, Neutral and in 1st gear. This requires 2 people or you will be up and down under the car 3 times.

 

[AJ/FormS]

I ran that shifter in a few different vehicles, and i have never had an issue. You need to check the adjustment in park, Neutral and in 1st gear. This requires 2 people or you will be up and down under the car 3 times.

or 30 times

ps ;rev-limiters are great investments. as are decent valve springs. You can't beat seeing the tach needle coming down past 8000, after a botched shift, and "nothing bad happened",....... unless the rev-limiter was set to 7200.lol. No more worries.

 

[TrailBeast]

It seemed like a cool Idea to change my column shift to a floor shift/automatic, but it is not positive/reliable when shifting, and I am worried to wind it up and blow the motor shifting and having it not go to the next gear... My Dad's does the same thing so he just leaves it in automatic all the time...
But the reason I did this setup was to be able to do both!

Anybody have experience with this or know what to do??? Had a good tranny guy put it in, but he isn't super experienced with these...

I know what you are asking about as I had some of the same problems.
Mine would sometimes miss going into third all the way when shifted manually.
There are two things that are critical to the Pro Matic working well and one that isn't so critical but helps a lot.
1. The adjustment is critical (meaning when you move the shifter the linkage at the trans is exactly where it needs to be)
2. The self centering spring HAS to re center exactly for the mechanism to catch the next cog
3. (not so critical but makes a big difference) is that the cable that comes with the Pro Matic is 5 feet long and has some give in it, so it's not super accurate about position.

For #1 all you can do is verify each postion of the shifter vs the trans linkage.
Take the cable loose at the lever on the trans and put the shifter and trans in each position.
Verify that in each position the cable will slip right back into the linkage lever.
It may very well need some geometry changing.

#2 There isn't a lot can be done with the centering spring except to get a new one.
I bent the spring on mine slightly so it had the correct center for the cogs on the ratchet mechanism to line up EXACTLY, but it took some time and patience to get it right. (got it wrong probably 10 times before it was right, and it doesn't take much of a bend to make a big difference)
The slightest little bit off and it won't work right.
Also if you look close at the mechanism while up shifting manually, you will notice that the ratchet arm barely gets ahold of the cogged plate that the cable is connected to. (this is what makes it miss the shift sometimes)
I used a moto tool to take about .020 off that arm surface so the arm more positively catches the cogs on the plate.

Last but not least is the cable.
I found that one of the B&M cables for their ratchet shifter is 3 feet long and is EXACTLY the same except for two details.
It is a super heavy duty cable and has WAY less slop in it than the Hurst 5 foot cable.
The second detail is that the eyelet on the shifter end is 2mm larger around than the Hurst cable end.
A 2mm spacer sleeve did the trick here, and now that it is all done it has never missed a shift up or down since.
That used to drive me nuts.

The whole process was trial and error, but now I have super positive and accurate shifting with NO noticeable variation in cable position shifting up or down.
I works perfect every time now, and I attribute a lot of it to the new heavy shift cable.

 

[j par]

Look at the title Jpar it's not a stock shifter

 

[j par]

I know what you are asking about as I had some of the same problems.
Mine would sometimes miss going into third all the way when shifted manually.
There are two things that are critical to the Pro Matic working well and one that isn't so critical but helps a lot.
1. The adjustment is critical (meaning when you move the shifter the linkage at the trans is exactly where it needs to be)
2. The self centering spring HAS to re center exactly for the mechanism to catch the next cog
3. (not so critical but makes a big difference) is that the cable that comes with the Pro Matic is 5 feet long and has some give in it, so it's not super accurate about position.

For #1 all you can do is verify each postion of the shifter vs the trans linkage.
Take the cable loose at the lever on the trans and put the shifter and trans in each position.
Verify that in each position the cable will slip right back into the linkage lever.
It may very well need some geometry changing.

#2 There isn't a lot can be done with the centering spring except to get a new one.
I bent the spring on mine slightly so it had the correct center for the cogs on the ratchet mechanism to line up EXACTLY, but it took some time and patience to get it right. (got it wrong probably 10 times before it was right, and it doesn't take much of a bend to make a big difference)
The slightest little bit off and it won't work right.
Also if you look close at the mechanism while up shifting manually, you will notice that the ratchet arm barely gets ahold of the cogged plate that the cable is connected to. (this is what makes it miss the shift sometimes)
I used a moto tool to take about .020 off that arm surface so the arm more positively catches the cogs on the plate.

Last but not least is the cable.
I found that one of the B&M cables for their ratchet shifter is 3 feet long and is EXACTLY the same except for two details.
It is a super heavy duty cable and has WAY less slop in it than the Hurst 5 foot cable.
The second detail is that the eyelet on the shifter end is 2mm larger around than the Hurst cable end.
A 2mm spacer sleeve did the trick here, and now that it is all done it has never missed a shift up or down since.
That used to drive me nuts.

The whole process was trial and error, but now I have super positive and accurate shifting with NO noticeable variation in cable position shifting up or down.
I works perfect every time now, and I attribute a lot of it to the new heavy shift cable.

Excellent write up!
Only question left I have is if that drove you nuts before, what drives you nuts now! LOL

 

[TrailBeast]

Excellent write up!
Only question left I have is if that drove you nuts before, what drives you nuts now! LOL

You know me too well Jason.
At the moment it's the tire that I hit a semi truck tire tread at 90 with.
I was going too fast to avoid it because it was at night on black pavement so I didn't see it in time to avoid it, I had to just pick where I hit it.
Although it was enough to knock it off the rim bead it didn't loose it's air.
It seems it either knocked it out of balance, or did something to the tire internally because it has a bit of a shake on the freeway now if over 70mph.

I am going to two car shows in Phoenix this weekend, so I need to get it in and find out (probably today)

 

[j par]

You know me too well Jason.
At the moment it's the tire that I hit a semi truck tire tread at 90 with.
I was going too fast to avoid it because it was at night on black pavement so I didn't see it in time to avoid it, I had to just pick where I hit it.
Although it was enough to knock it off the rim bead it didn't loose it's air.
It seems it either knocked it out of balance, or did something to the tire internally because it has a bit of a shake on the freeway now if over 70mph.

I am going to two car shows in Phoenix this weekend, so I need to get it in and find out (probably today)

ASAP please, I can't afford you to get hurt and then lose the kind of help you provide to this forum and myself! Get that tire fixed!

 

[TrailBeast]

ASAP please, I can't afford you to get hurt and then lose the kind of help you provide to this forum and myself! Get that tire fixed!

I will probably just get two new tires if it knocked the tire out of round (which is what it feels like.)
It doesn't roll true at really slow speeds in stop and go traffic, as in has a slight hump feeing to it each time it makes a revolution so I suspect it's garbage.

 

[j par]

I will probably just get two new tires if it knocked the tire out of round (which is what it feels like.)
It doesn't roll true at really slow speeds in stop and go traffic, as in has a slight hump feeing to it each time it makes a revolution so I suspect it's garbage.

O ya, you damaged the inside of the tires inners

 

[j par]

Anyways to the original poster before it gets too far derailed and gets blamed on me! What he said....

 

[TrailBeast]

It took a lot of time and patience to watch what the shifter was trying to do going in and out of each position, and see what was keeping it from doing it but it sure was worth it in the end.

 

[j par]

I recall having that same issue with my first B&M Quicksilver shifter. It took a lot of back and forth before I got that sucker right. This last time I put a B&M shifter on I actually had the transmission out at the time and was able to get the mechanism and a transmission completely working perfect on my bench and then just gently disconnected it making sure to keep everything in adjustment put everything in and just connected it all back up working as it did on the bench. And I did this because of my previous experience with going up in the car and then under the car and then up in the car then under the car like you guys said too many times lol and that was well over 20 years ago! And this last summer I still remembered that and did it all on my bench without having to go back and forth.

 

[Christine&Rusty]

Thanks guys...was looking at a "Hurst 3838500 Pro-Matic 2" complete used gently for $80 on Craigslist.
He claims no problem using it for him.
Why is he selling it.
No, thats a question, if he likes it why is he selling it?
I kinda want to move to the floor but don't want to bounce 200 times, and replacing the 5' with a B&M 3' ($ range from $44.95 to $99.99) would be ....cost effective? ($285.70 at Hurst website)
Yeah, on the other hand I ain't young enough for the bounce, would be an overnighter, and column shift is fine. Now watch the guy want $40 for it and I'll find some kid that needs $10 to sit and shift so I can lay in the driveway all day-nap included- and play cable dog.....I'm talked out of it....for now, I'll have questions if it becomes one of those 2 good 2 B passed up things......Damn Craigslist....