paddle shifters for automatic solved

First a safety tip//...next i will show you how to shift down...

I believe this is a pretty good layout please tell me if you like it

2 different circuits used for upshifting and downshifting, but tie together at a,b,c,d

took me about 2 hours to work all thing out and another to draw

the safety now goes on the 1st gear to stop from shifting to 4th at the red light.

no i haven't made a live circuit with this set up, but theortically it will work

if you dont understand any of the concept just ask i will explain

You do realize that you have just complicated the circuit so it now uses 4 IC's.

The OR on the input

The Flip-Flops

The NOR Gates and

The Inverters

I am working out the New Circuit

Here is what I have so far.

you actually must have 6 ic's all together

up and down ic will be

up must have 1 OR(1/4 chip), 2 Flip Flops(1 chip), 4 NOR's(1 chip), and 0 inverters

down must have 1 OR(1/4 chip),2 Flip Flops(1 chip), 4 NOR's(1 chip), and 2 inverters(1/3 chip)

by these terms you can use 1(4071 chip), 2(4013 chips) 2(4001 chips) and 1(4069 chip)

you can not use the same flip flop or nor gate chips due to high/low conflict "which low generally wins"

i would draw it if you would like.

sorry on the up circuit you need 1 inverter on the safety loop but the same 4069 can be used

and also one extra on the down circuit for the same reason

nonetheless you can use the same 4069 for the whole circuit

total of 4 inverters

Here is an easier solution

In the two hours it took you to think that up I could have programmed a microcontroller to acomplish what you are going after, but with only ONE chip total.  It actually sounds like a fun project, let me know if you would like my help.  I could easily have it programmed, tested, and shipped within a few days.