why not lengthen the stick with a bend in it??

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

did I make everyone go quiet with my logical answer from this afternoon??

serious response to making a sequential shift for an auto is not that complex.... most (all?) sequential shift mechanisms for manual gearboxes use a rotating drum with 2 pairs of slots in it, an arm from the gearbox goes into each of them, and when the drum is rotated, a gear is selected by pushing or pulling on each arm in the appropriate direction - IE for a manual mini, to get first, the drum would pull back on the first lever, and rotate the other to the right (a pull motion with a bell crank that makes the gearbox shaft rotate), second would be push forward on the first lever, and keep the 2nd to the right, then third is push on the 1st lever, and rotate to the left, and 4th gear is a pull and keep it to the left... so each time you want to shift a gear up, the drum rotates one direction, and shifting down rotates the other direction.....

here's a drum (though would have a track for each gear)



to set up an auto mini would be dead simple (in comparison to a manual), all the drum needs to do is pull the cable from the gearbox one step further for each gear you want to shift up, the drum would therefore just have a slot machined in it at a 45 degree angle, and when it's rotated, the cable end gets pushed to the next step....

simplifying from there, if you think about the drum, it's just a pattern that would be designed on a flat plate, then 'wrapped' around a cylinder.... they make it a cylinder so that it can stay in one place, if it was a flat plate, it'd need to move from side to side to push and pull the cable.

sooo.... if you wanted to make a really simple sequential shifter, you could just make up a plate that sits over the gearstick, with a slot cut across it at 45 degrees, mount the plate in slides that let it move sideways across the car, and set up a mechanism where when you want to shift up a gear, it knocks it to the right, and shifting down knocks it to the left - I suppose that's the easy bit though, the ratcheting mechanism Harley was referring to is the more complex bit. To power it electrically, a pair of grunty solenoids are the way to go, they don't need to hold, they just need to punch

but then you might know all that already

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

1) Cos then it would interfere with the handbrake and/or seat when in D.


2) Cos I want a sequential shift just cos I think it can be done and would be fun, alright???

I've noticed some "reverse gate" B&M ratchet shifters have the right positions on the shifter. Maybe some merit in looking at one of those. No sense in reinventing the wheel.

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Brett Nicholson
Greendale (near Ballan) VIC.
1971 Morris Mini Moke
1966 Austin Mini
1965 Morris Mini Traveller
1973 LR Series 3 88
2007 LR Freelander 2

bollocks, that's just a lame excuse


yes, that's alright.....

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?

this is what Im wantin to do on one of my autos I dont hav park in any of my cars.......... I was hoping that a remote step motor of some sort would do the job. I havnt looked but it was at the back of my mind as a job to do soon.
Cheers

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61 van
63 countryman
63 saloon
67 auto
73 auto clubman
75 1000cc clubman
77 sccr 998 clubman
NZ 79 1275gt clubman estate
79 LE
80 meanee
Racecar
Fiat 500

jaycar sell a stepper motor driver kit, a tad exxy though ($50), but might be a good place to start

edit: forgot to add, stepper motor would be slow as it's likely to need a gearbox, unless it has a lot of grunt, where it would be expensive, but even still, pretty slow compared to the drum method

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did I tell you that I won a trophy?