New to big trucks with my 1968 peterbilt 359

Shift cables you say? I'm not familiar with those. I was sure hoping it was something simple.

 

I did drive an IH Loadstar cabover that had a 5 speed column shift and a 2 speed axle on the dash. PITA that was, talk about find and grind.

 

Those were gas burners right? Ford had that as an option in the C Models with the gassers.

 

Yes, 392s, I believe. They dripped fuel. The newer cabover Loadstars had the floor shift, but wasn't much better. Lowering the cab on the shifter didn't help matters. I've never seen a Ford cabover with a column shift,, I'm sure they made them, but one of the problems was the shift linkage was so long, bound for slop.
Now this person mentions cables on the aux.? IDK, I've seen newer Pete cabovers with a cable shift, but I'm not sure what this person is talking about.

 

The early Ford C’s with that option used the same column shifter as the ‘61-‘66 F-100 pickup’s.
Cable shift on a brownie in a Pete back then woulda been something rigged up aftermarket. They were all steel rods. The old 10 speed could be cable operated on the range selector tho.

 

I learned how to drive in my grandfather's '66 F100. He bought it brand new it had a 3 speed on the column behind a 352 big block engine. I remember it being easy to drive once I got the hang of it. Me and my brother used to feed cattle with it. I was in the back tossing out square bales and he was romping on it fishtailing trying to roll me out the back lol

 

Back in the 80’s a friend of mine’s older cousin had come down here from Minnesota for work and needed something to drive. He found a nice, well kept chocolate brown ‘65 shortbed, 352, 3 on the tree. The Minnesota farmboy didn’t like 3 on the tree so he hacked a hole in the floor for a chrome Hurst. That truck fought him back for that mistake. He couldn’t keep a transmission in it after that. They all went bad rather quickly. Lol.

 

Ours was a black long bed affectionately called ol' blackie. Really good looking truck it had a lot of factory chrome. The '66 grill was the best looking of those particular years. Wish I still had it. We also had black '65 Chevy short bed with a 3 speed on the column. My grandad inherited that one from an uncle who passed in 1981. It was weak with the inline 6 so we didn't drive that one much and it didn't get abused lol. It's long gone too. I remember thinking when I was a kid in the early 80's how old those trucks seemed but they weren't even 15-16 years old at the time.