Transmission issue

rscardina

rscardina

Senior Member
I have been having some issues shifting between 1st and 2nd gear. It has been going on since I bought the car 2 years ago. It first happened very rarely. As time moved on it has been becoming a little more frequent. Saturday it happened about a half a dozen times. Occasionally it seems that there is something blocking it from shifting into 2nd gear. From a dead stop I can easily shift into any gear. Like I said occasionally after taking off in 1st gear I am unable to shift into 2nd gear. Eventually after either shifting back into 1st gear, double clutching, or trying multiple times I am able to finally shift it into 2nd. On one occasion Saturday I even tried 3rd when 2nd seemed to be blocked out and had the same issue with 3rd. Sunday I didn't use 1st gear at all. I was easily able to shift between 2nd and 3rd gear the whole time for a 60 mile trip with no issues. Please let me know if any of you have seen or heard similar issues and what the problem may be. Thanks in advance.
 
That sounds exactly like my car. The folks on this forum gave me a ton of advice, none of which worked. The options were:

"Learn to drive" (they said it nicely). This helped smooth 2-3 and 3-2 but did nothing for 1 to 2.
Replace your ****** grease. It was nasty, but new 600W did nothing.
Adjust your clutch. Again, good 2 to 3, no change 1 to 2.
Adjust your idle down. Same as above.

Eventually the motor came out and I popped open the ****** while I was there. Aside from a couple questionable bearings, the thing looked good EXCEPT the ball on the end of the shift lever was worn to a square. I haven't been able to try it yet, but it really looks like the culprit.

They're cheap enough and change by just pulling the tower. ****** stays in the car.
 
Your problem seems as Simonpie says, or, in the shift rails or forks.
Removal of the transmitter top [ easy to do] should show the problem.
New shift levers are available at the vendors or the end can be built up and filed/ground down. If I remember correctly the diameter is 1/2".
 
When the 1/2" ball gets worn square you have enough play to start problems, such as maybe the shift lever isn't fully released from one gear fork before you try to shift to the other fork. The best way to live with it until you fix the tower is to hold the shift lever and carefully shift in a strict H pattern, rather than kind of sliding the lever from first to second. Remember when you were just starting to drive and thought speed shifting was cool?:confused: It doesn't work with a Model A, nor a car with worn shifting parts.:eek:
 
is it blocked forward/backwards or left/right?
If it is shift end ball is worn it will be the left/right.....sometimes a left/right "jiggle" during shifting will release the R/1 and allow you to move to the 2/3 position. Shift out of 1st, and if it won't go to the right give it a left/right "jiggle" and try again.

(just remember to use a jiggle and not get jiggy with it.).. (sorry)
 
Tom Wesenberg said:
When the 1/2" ball gets worn square you have enough play to start problems, such as maybe the shift lever isn't fully released from one gear fork before you try to shift to the other fork. The best way to live with it until you fix the tower is to hold the shift lever and carefully shift in a strict H pattern, rather than kind of sliding the lever from first to second. Remember when you were just starting to drive and thought speed shifting was cool?:confused: It doesn't work with a Model A, nor a car with worn shifting parts.:eek:
Click to expand...
YEP, Tom, we thought we were COOL, learnin' to SPEEDSHIFT & wiped out LOTS of transmissions. SOMETIMES, WE'D EVEN TAKE OUT THE WHOLE BOTTOM OF THE CASE, in the middle of the DRAG STRIP! We had a standing deal with our JUNKIE, he'd sell us transmissions for $5.00 & rear ends, for $7.50, some even complete with brakes & drums.
We became VERY proficient at O"HAULIN" transmissions.
Bill W.
 
I went though this with a friend's 1928 Sport Coupe last year. His complaints were exactly the same as yours. The problem was especially acute when starting from a red traffic light and going through an intersection. Sometimes he couldn't even go from neutral to first, let alone from 1st to 2nd gear without a struggle. I had the engine and ****** out for rebuilding anyway, so we replaced the very worn cluster and other gears, as well as the bearings. The shifter was fairly new with a good round ball on the bottom. After assembling everything, it was still difficult to shift from 1st to 2nd, just as before. The ****** was much quieter with the new gears and bearings, but the same old problem existed. Even the plungers and spring were changed - with no improvement.
Finally, I replaced the shifter forks. Still no change. The very last item left was the shift rails themselves. New ones were installed and the problem went away. The friend is very happy with the nice, easy shifting now.
I rolled the old shift rails on a level surface (a thick piece of glass) and noticed one was very slightly sprung. That was apparently the problem all along. As Patrick L. stated, change the shift rails. They don't need to be sprung very much (I couldn't SEE the bow in the rail) to cause hanging up and hard shifting. Think how many hundreds of thousands of times those poor things had to be moved back and forth in the last 85 years by drivers with varying degrees of shifting expertise! From now on, I'll check the shift rails FIRST when a problem like this arises in the future.
Marshall
 
I had a problem shifting from 1st to 2nd..the gut I bot the car from had added 2 gauge aftermarket panel below dash..great idea yes ? no! Rev and 2nd he hit his hand on the extra gauge panel .. Einstein fellow that he was bent the shifting lever back to clear extra gauge panel with brute force..guess what, it bent shifting forks inside just enough so it did not like to go into 2ng gear..solution replaced shift tower with another ..shift like an automatic now..conclusion people bend and pull on shift lever and it screws up folks alignment..sc PS I put extra gauge panel under steering support.works great now.
 
31Abone said:
Einstein fellow that he was bent the shifting lever back to clear extra gauge panel with brute force..guess what, it bent shifting forks inside just enough so it did not like to go into 2ng gear..solution replaced shift tower with another.
Click to expand...

Yep, I've read a couple times where someone said they could just grab the lever and bend it out of the way, and each time I hear that I have to wonder what got bent inside the ******.:confused:
 
Thanks for the helpful hints.
I have a 30AA and have found that 2sides of the shifter are dround flat. But I don't see any logical way to get it out but to remove the 3 "shifting rods" that are secured by small wire run thru holes in the bolts. See pic. Is that correct? Unwire, loosen bolts and slide the rods out ? I don't see any other way as the housing is all one cast peice and no way to remove from the top.
 

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