An Auto-tranny shift position indicator

I'm about to go buy one of those new Novak T-case shifters and I decided that I just wanna rip out the small "console" that the shifters come out of and make a boot to surround em. This poses one problem, I won't be able to look down and see where the shifter is (Park, Neutral, Drive, etc). I want to rig up an alphanumeric LED display underneath my clock that will be able to display:R, P, N, d, 3, 1 depending on the gear that I'm in. I don't know if the transmission has any wires I could tap into to get the signal for the position information or if I will need to rig some kind of contact points on the handle itself.

Heres a very rough idea of what I'm thinkin


I'm gonna start lookin into some different options for doing this, I may have a few of my electrical engineering friends help me rig something.

Any help anyone can give would be awsome especially about the possibility of getting the signal from the transmission.

The range switch on the trans(right side on shift shaft) should be able to give you what you want. Thats what it does for the trans controller.

i know there are no wires from the TCM that would give this info in any way. the second (smaller) cable may be of some use.

Will that give a 12V+ when it is in the given gear?

You could try to adapt a Lokar shifter that has this functionality.

IIRC, they have a shifter that has the lighted markings on a chrome trim bezel around the shift boot or a panel that can be put on your dash somewhere.

Problem is that they don't have anything for the AW4. Maybe try adapting a 700R4 shifter? With some tricky custom wiring you mihgt be able to make "1" a true "1" and "2" be the AW4 "1-2" as per normal.

r@m

1990XJ4x4 said:

Will that give a 12V+ when it is in the given gear?

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If your referring to the range switch, sort of. I don't have a manual for the aw4 in frt. of me right now, but I'm pretty sure the electrics are all 12v and the range switch has a series of sliders in it to give a range indication for the TCM. Whether they're 12v or ground I don't remember. I'll see if I can find my manual.

What year? I have a pile of manuals, but while I'm pretty sure the switch proper is the same, the electrics afterward may be different (damn Chrysler!) and I'd like to make sure I'm giving out good information wherever possible.

Another interesting idea for you may be Dakota Digital - they do alpha displays, but are kinda spendy.

I may still have the demux ckt that someone here gave me a while ago, which would allow you to also use the solenoid signals (binary) and demux them to a digital counter, which would allow you to run two displays - the range lever and the actual gear. Let me know if you want me to look for that as well - it looked pretty simple. I've long since forgotten who gave it to me (sorry!) but if you're reading this, I'd not mind another copy - both for backup's sake and so I know who to credit the idea to...

5-90

I may still have the demux ckt that someone here gave me a while ago, which would allow you to also use the solenoid signals (binary) and demux them to a digital counter, which would allow you to run two displays - the range lever and the actual gear. Let me know if you want me to look for that as well - it looked pretty simple.

Click to expand...

I didn't even think about displaying the actual gear. Whatever you could figure out would be greatly appreciated. By the way, I have a 90.