Hi all,

I am new to Mustangs and to this forum.

I just bought a 1969 Mustang Coupe for my wife, with a Windsor 4V 351 and 4 speed manual transmission. It still has the original shifter.

On this shifter, Reverse is down and to the left (next to 2nd). There is no reverse lock out in the handle. With reverse placed next to 2nd gear, it seems like it would be easy to go from 1st right into reverse.

I have seen reverse up and to the left (next to first) which is out of the flow of the shifting. That makes sense to me. This pattern is new to me, and I certainly don't want to twist up a drive shaft.

1) Is there a reverse lock out built into this shifter?
2) If not, is there a good aftermarket shifter that you can recommend?

I certainly want to keep this car as stock as possible, but I consider this a safety issue for both me and the car!

Thanks,

Jay





This is the pattern. No reverse lock out on the shifter handle. Is it built in?

 

I don't think it is possible to shift into reverse with the car rolling forward.

 

IIRC, you'd have purposely ignore the loud grinding noises and muscle thru it. This has been true for decades.

 

Thanks to all! Believe it or not, knowing that there will be a loud grinding noise is very comforting to me.

 

Sleep well...lol

 

Yeah, having reverse over there isn't that big of a problem. It's a much more frustrating issue on something like a T56 where reverse is way over on the top right, which makes hunting for 5th interesting if you're in a hurry.

 

There should be extra spring force in the shifter to make yo aware of reverse.