I recently purchased an 88 Mustang LX that a guy who had a friend help him with his project. The guy knows nothing about cars and the friend is now in Iraq. They replaced the former 4 cyl with a 347 the friend had built. It sounds pretty strong. They used an automatic transmission with an straightline Hurst shifter. The guy says it has a 3500 stall converter. The problem is the car won't shift out of low. There is no linkage between the transmission and the Holley carburator. I read somewhere that without this linkage the transmission gets fried fairly quickly which may be what's happened already. Anyone know of any reference points on how this automatic setup should have been completed and may be salvaged?  

what automatic is being used? an aod, aode, c4, c6?
an aod needs a linkage cable to the carburator in order to shift,unless you have a manual valve body. an aode is elecronically shifted. a c4 or c6 would not need a shift cable, so the first step to solving your problem is transmission i.d.