The Dodge Challenger Message Board

I am in the process of removing the junk B&M shifter that came with my car and installing an original slapstick shifter. After removing the carpet, I found the tunnel had been patched with a very thin sheet of aluminum (shown in first photo) to cover a hole made from ?????? It wasn’t used for the B&M since this shifter uses the smaller hole to let the cable pass through, and a real nice hole at that. It looks like someone used a pry bar to open it up (seen in second photo at very right)! The hole would not have been for the original shifter, there would have only been a bracket welded in this location. What is surprising to me is that I was expecting to see some evidence of where the console brackets used to be attached or where the torque shaft passed through, but then it just occurred to me that perhaps this was not originally a console shifted trans, but perhaps a column shifted transmission. However, the steering column that came in the car does not have a shifter or any signs of one, which means the steering column was probably swapped out at some point. All the original shifter linkage was gone and I don’t have the build sheet. Is there any other way to determine what version of shifter the car originally came with? Either way I plan to put in a console and I was looking for guidance on how to locate the brackets. I guess I could use what looks to be the factory marks for locating the torque shaft and work backwards. Does anyone have any reference measurements or ways to easily locate the console brackets? Thanks in advance for any input. Chris

Your car didn't origonally come with a floor shifter. I say that because there is no hole drilled in the floor for the shifter rod. In your second picture, you can see the round area on the driers side where the floor shift linkage bolts to the floor. None of your screw holes are drilled and there is no hole in the middle of that area.

NCChal, you might be in for some measuring. Firstly, Burdar is right -yours was a column shift car. You can drill out the circle for the torque shaft and the three holes for the rubber seal. that's the easy part. The hard part will be lining up where the console brackets go. why? Cause i had to do exactly the same thing. Lucky for me i have two Chal's. One is a factory slapstick console car and i could painstakingly take every measurement i needed. My other 73 Chal was a factory 4 speed. Console car, yes, but like yours, it had been butchered even more, and they had welded in the console brackets in the wrong place. They have to be almost exact -right to the nearest millimetre if possible, as the console is very tight fit around the rod areas and between the seats. Especially if you are putting new carpet? I put in extra thick plush pile and that made things easier and harder in different ways. Let me know if you want measurements and from which reference points you will be using and i'll get out there and get them.