Went racing again yesterday. Had the same problem. Made 5 runs and on 2 of them went 1 to 3rd. I ready to get rid of this thing unless there is a simple cheap solution. Anyone else had this problem and solved it? Jim

I'm happy with my B&M Proratchet . Easy adjust .

Tex

sold my T/A shifter and went with a PPP (my T/A liked to shift 1-2 on it's own at the hit). I was fortunate enough to come across a used one for the fraction of the cost (3 spd, rev pattern, clean N, w/t air shift and AED shift timer) but now that I've used it I would GLADLY pay full pop for one. It's definitely the last shifter that will be in this car... I absolutely love it!! Rear cable exit at shifter, rear entry at trans...

I'll second the B&M pro ratchet. I had one in my dart and it worked great. Absolutely no missed shifts. Never used a T/A shifter. They just look like they would be a pain in the a$$ to operate.

get the right gate and you wont have that problem , and pull the shifter in instead of pushing it back..
(call Paul)

Actually the T/A shifter was easy to operate... but it's a gate shifter that relies on the detents on the rooster comb of the valve body for positive stops on the reverse pattern gate. This same gate was also famous for the dreaded 1-3 ahift. I found that if you "hit" the shifter from 1-2, it would line up for the 2-3. If you "pulled" the shifter, often it would cruise right past the stop and go 1-3. it's just that when we went to the W8 mill, it launched hard enough to make the 1-2 shift on it's own. I ended up buying a different gate and modified the "rooster comb" for a tighter fit, but the PPP deal came up so down the road it went. The PPP is a ratchet style shifter and is imho the smoothest, quickest, most positive piece we've had in the car (shifter #3). Right now I'm using it manually as I'm running the Heritage series, but when It's back to Pro ET class, in goes the air and timer and it works great.

The gate in my hand is the "recommended" reverse pattern T/A piece.... right below the raised stop sticking up near my thumb was N, you'd then pull it one step back to 1. Prob was that when we launched, back it would come. I swapped to my clean N t-brake and installed the other gate that's shown on the shifter. It's actually the forward pattern gate, but worked "ok" for what I needed to do. There's better tools in the shed out there now. This was "high tech" in like the early 80's.



....and it was an interesting conversation with Paul when I was explaining what was going on. Got even better when "clean N" trans brake came into the conversation.

with my clean N t-brake (one shown is my pn123 brake) the point right after the stop on the gate was now "1". To help prevent the shifter doing the 1-2 on it's own I shimmed the ball in the valve body for a tighter fit, and filed the depth and ramps on the "rooster combo" to the point I could barely shift it by hand with the lever on the bench, but it had a much more positive feel when the cable and shifter was hooked up.... softened everything back up when I went to the PPP (stock/unmodded rooster comb and removed the shim). That mod wouldn't be necessary with the B&M shifter the others mentioned as IIRC it's also a "ratchet" type shifter.

Not sure which gate you have but when mine did this it was always my fault. I pulled the handle back and towards me which would bring it into 3rd.
Simple fix was to simply push right as I pulled . I never missed a shift again. Been using mine since the mid 80's.

J_Body the gate in your shifter is the one that came w/my shifter back in the 80's. It was listed as a reverse pattern shifter. That's also the same gate that came in my brothers shifter in the mid 2000's. I've never seen the gate you have on the right.

You shouldn't have to "think" about your shifter to keep it from doing something you don't want to. The 1-3 shift is common on T/A shifters.

Many don't like the way they look, or how much they cost, but the PPP is the best shifter on the market

back in the day "this" was the shifter gate they (T Action) said I needed for my reverse pattern T brake highlighted in yellow in this summit ad:

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/tac-70076b/overview/

the two on the left in the white box could use either, but was also recommended for clean N use and included a decal that make the "N" position "1".... which still left a straight shot back to "2" which still means I would still had to stiffen the valve body to prevent "automatic" shifting. Take the cable off a T/A shifter and you'll see how they just pretty much "flop" from front to back.



the other gate "worked" but was awkward imho

If you run the RVB, use the FVB gate.....slap it straight on the 1-2 and slightly over on the 2-3 and there's no way to miss. I don't like the RVB gate at all.

To me the 1-2 is the critical shift and using the FVB pattern on a RVB the 2-3 is over (slightly) and back so you can hit the 1-2 as hard as you want. I don't see how you can miss 1-2 or inadvertently go 1-3 using it. I was already racing 4 speeds for 20 yrs before I ever raced with an automatic though.

I hated my Cheetah shifter for the same reason, I would pull from 1st to 3rd too, I love my B&M pro ratchet.

I tried every TA gate made, no diff... I still lost rounds

The T/A website has many tech tips..
Scroll to the bottom of this page for MoPar gate swaps.
http://www.turboaction.com/techtipscontent.html


This pic shows the correct plate numbers...I have a spare reverse pattern plate if that is what you need.

Quarter stick. Cheap and bulletproof.

I love my TA shifter, and if one day it starts to kick out of 1st on its own I will be happy that my car is leaving that hard lol. I have had zero issues missing 2nd with mine.

If I were to change shifters I would go quarter stick.

I have personally like the Cheetah shifter, never had any issues with one. I like the looks of the PPP shifter but their customer service sucks!

I have never had an issue with my T/A shifter either.