Junkyard Report: 2007 Lexus GS450h - OEM Shifter

[Gregski]

time for another Report from the Junkyard

since the Lexus GS450h powerplant seems to be a popular conversion combo for rear wheel drive vehicles and since I live 2 miles away from the world's largest wrecking yard that allows you to pull your own parts I figure I will share with you a mini series I like to call "The Junkyard Report" where I share with you mostly through pictures what some of the OEM EV conversion parts look like and where they reside on our beloved GS450h in the wild, how hard they are to pull and should or should you not bother with using them on your own project

this time we got ourselves The OEM Floor Shifter

Year: 2007 (3rd Generation ie 2007-2011)
Make: Lexus
Model: GS450h

Parts Pull Difficulty (PPD): Pretty Easy

I actually pulled two of these from two different 2007 Lexi, so I will share pics of both, so first here is how we find them in the wild

please forgive some of the redundancy in pics from the other posts in this series, I would like for each thread to be able to stand on it's own

[Gregski]

I was actually surprise how quickly stuff disappeared off of the black one, I was there only 3 days after the car arrived and the inverter was already gone, and looked like someone left a cougar in the cabin


this is how I found the center console

so my OCD made it put it back sort of in it's place for the photo opp

[Gregski]

here's a birds eye view of the center console, I wish I took pics of it after I got it out of the car, I may go back and to that just so you can see the 17 different pieces that make up this abomination

pretty sure a chipmunk owned this car

[Gregski]

took some pics of the linkage down below

here I am trying to show how far back and above the transmission the actual shifter sits, it's almost a foot back of the tail of the transmission, I could have sworn it was right above it in the middle, but nope, glad I took these pics

[Gregski]

and she's out for her close ups

so I believe and correct me if I am wrong, we are not really shifting actual gears with this thing, all this thing does is lock the transmission when in Park and all the other settings unlock it and just send electronic signals to the VCU telling it to either send positive torque signals when in Drive or negative torque signals when in Reverse, as there is no actual reverse gear in this transmission, it's just a gear reduction jobbie

somebody wanna 3D print us a cover for this beauty?

[Gregski]

ah yup, and this is what you get when you leave me all unsupervised late at night with a cold snack

The Jigermeister 3000 (prototype of course)

The purpose of this exercise is three fold:

1. Show how far back the actual shifter sits behind the transmission (this matters in a truck)
2. Test and demonstrate what it takes to get it out of Park
3. Test the shift rod geometry when moving the shifter up more and or forward more

[Gregski]

ah yes, the Anatomy of the Lexus GS450h Automatic Transmission Shifter ~ brought to you by Bachelor Life (TM)

[Gregski]

so first of all, in order to get it out of Park without having to step on a brake pedal in un electronically controlled vintage cars you need to remove this gray gizmo

please be advised, I own two of these OEM shifters, allowing me to completely bastardize one whilst leaving the other completely in tact, so that I can show you stuff side by side

[T1Terry]

Doesn't that grey gizmo do all the electrical switch at each lever position? Wouldn't it be easier to add a wire to the stop light switch to trigger the Park lock?

As far as shifter position, would it be possible to reuse the cable from the B&M shifter, so the Lexus shifter mounts in a similar position?

Maybe the second mock up model could place the shifter in the desired position and see what could be done to make it work ......

I need you to do all this sorting of the fabrication side to make it easier for the conversion into the C240E Mercedes with the V6 engine knock ..... either the cam flogged out in the rear mounts or the piston hitting the head, either way, that will be someone else's problem ......

Pity it would be so expensive to get all those panels over here, I have a Lexus GS 450h that needs a few front guards and left hand doors, and .... yeah, I'll just pull the bits out eh

T1 Terry

[Gregski]

Doesn't that grey gizmo do all the electrical switch at each lever position?

T1 Terry

No I don't think so, I think you are thinking of the Shift Lever Position Sensor which lives on the side of the transmission (editing that video as I type this)

As far as shifter position, would it be possible to reuse the cable from the B&M shifter, so the Lexus shifter mounts in a similar position?

T1 Terry

unfortunately push/pull cable shifters use a completely different giddy up than their mechanical linkage counter parts, the cable shifters need some sort of stoppers if you will to allow the cables to slide back and forth, think cable brakes on a bicycle, and of course one can modify anything they want to make it work the question is do you want to reinvent the wheel when there are 7,200 donor vehicles 2.5 miles away at the local Pick N Pull from your house (my third video of the shifter upgrade series addresses this concern)

[Gregski]

EV DIY Special Guests shed some additional light on the Lexus GS450h automatic transmission (E-CVT) floor shifter