ORD Magnum 205 - Cable Shifter, Cable Length?

[Gibby56]

Hey Fellas, I am thinking about doing cable shifters from JB Fab when I swap in the magnum into my K5. I have seen a few of you guys running cable shifters, what length cable did you go with? I am wanting the shifters on the floor near the factory location.

I am leaning towards the cables for ease of setup. My K5 is a 1990 and doesn't have the bolt in transmission hump like the earlier years.

 

[obijuank5]

Longer the better to keep the bends loose.

 

[nvrenuf]

I have 60” cables on my JB shifter, it’s mounted at the factory 205 shifter spot with the cables pointed rearward and then looped back around to the bracket on the 205.

Ultimately, I wish I’d have chosen 72” simply to allow a greater radius in the u-turn.

 

[mrk5]

I ended up with 8ft. My shifter is in roughly the factory location.



At that time I wanted longer than 5ft and the next available was 8ft.

 

[nvrenuf]

Be sure to watch how the cables hang, mine want to droop really close to the driveshaft so I made a bracket to hold them close to the floor.

 

[Gibby56]

I have 60” cables on my JB shifter, it’s mounted at the factory 205 shifter spot with the cables pointed rearward and then looped back around to the bracket on the 205.

Ultimately, I wish I’d have chosen 72” simply to allow a greater radius in the u-turn.

Can you educate me here? I’m assuming a looser bend is just less stress on the cable which gets you a smoother shifter feel?

 

[Gibby56]

Thank you for all the replies! How do you guys like the cable shift? Have you had any issues?

 

[nvrenuf]

Can you educate me here? I’m assuming a looser bend is just less stress on the cable which gets you a smoother shifter feel?

That’s exactly why.

I like my shifter, it’s very well made and works great. That said, mine is mounted on the hump so I had to make a hole for the cables to drop through the floor and it’s ugly. I don’t have a bench seat or center console to hide the cable hole under so you see everything and because of where I wanted the shifter the clocked up 205 prevented me from dropping the shifter below the floor.

 

[Fastereddie]

I have a jb fab triple stick and cables and it’s been great. Mine started getting hard to shift after about a year but that’s because my muffler started melting them.
Make sure you protect them from high temperatures.

 

[Gibby56]

I have a jb fab triple stick and cables and it’s been great. Mine started getting hard to shift after about a year but that’s because my muffler started melting them.
Make sure you protect them from high temperatures.

Great point. Do you remember what length cables you ordered? Have any pictures of how you routed the cables?

 

[Fastereddie]

Great point. Do you remember what length cables you ordered? Have any pictures of how you routed the cables?

I don’t remember off hand. I probably have the receipt at home, I’ll look. I wanna say 72” though. Mine com out of the center console area.

 

[Gibby56]

Super helpful, thank you!

 

[mrk5]

The only trouble I've had with JB Fab cables is when I've allowed them to melt on the exhaust.

 

[skunked]

I don’t remember off hand. I probably have the receipt at home, I’ll look. I wanna say 72” though. Mine com out of the center console area.


View attachment 465612View attachment 465611

that's about identical to my setup. Same fasteners and heat shield and I'm pretty sure I'm running either 72's or 96's.

The only trouble I've had with JB Fab cables is when I've allowed them to melt on the exhaust.

me too. I melted one right after I assembled the truck and Jon sold me a single replacement.

 

[SpeedlabDan]

Went with 60s this time but I’d use the 8’ next time

 

[Gibby56]

The magnum showed up today so I’ll be starting to get ready to install it. Are you guys running the adjustable detents or just the OEM ones? I’m just running the factory ones unless ORD does anything to them when they rebuild the case. I had a 205 in my 72 K5 and it could be a pain to get it out of 4wd. Not sure if that’s normal for the transfer case or something was wrong with that one.

 

[sweetk30]

I have 2 ord 203/205 units and can say this ......

203 box is soft so add a spacer like i did with a 3/8 nut .

Otherwise i fell no need for adjustable detents on my 3 stick lever shifter .

Stock single stick 205 SUCKS . once you go twin stick you forget the problems .

 

[nvrenuf]

I have a JB triple shifter on my doubler and I used the adjustable detents on my 205 but nothing on the 203. My 205 had the original detent springs etc in it and I couldn’t feel anything in the shifter, the adjustable detents fixed that, I highly recommend them.

Note, for me, when adjusting they had a really fine line between the “clicks” and locked up.