Gear Selector Stuck - 48

C

Cora1948

Junior Member
48 Ford Super Deluxe. Replaced oil pressure sending unit and saw the lower gear shifter grease zerk and dedicated to hit it with some grease. Now shifter won’t move. It’s in 1st gear. I removed the zerk to release pressure. No luck. Never had any issues shifting, should have left alone.

Ideas?
 
Will the lever itself move, but not shift gears? Or no lever movement? I remember column shift cars that would hang up and refuse to shift. The lever would move tho, if I remember correctly. It required jiggling the shift mechanism under the hood to get everything back in sync. while in neutral. Seems like my '55 C___ would hang up in low gear and I would need to crawl under the car and make sure the trans was in neutral when the shifter was in neutral.
 
Shifter will not move at all - maybe 1/2” back and forth. Think the grease moved some spacing in the tube. 1/2 tempted to put some more grease in to maybe clean out the old grease, but hoping for a less risky idea.
 
I suggest disconnecting both shift rods from the tran. And have someone slightly attempt to rock the car
 
Had it happen on my 42 after working in that area. I think I disconnected the shift rods on top. Moved the levers on the transmission until I knew it was neutral. Confirmed by rolling the car. Of course, make sure you aren't on an incline. Then I made sure the column was in neutral and reconnected the shift rods.
 
I encountered this before. Not sure if this will work for you but it fixed the problem for me. Follow the steering column under the hood and move the gears with your hand. It should pop back into place.
 
I attached a picture.
 

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The excess grease will usually get pushed out of the way and exit somewhere around the periphery. If it can't exit then the shift rod may not be able to move off the centered position which would lock it in neutral. If the lever will not pull toward or push away from the operator then it may be hydraulically locked. It may free up with moderate heat if it's cold or it might need the end to be removed to clean the excess grease out and clear any exit points so that it won't happen again.

Transmission shift levers can get caught between shifts sometimes due to internal wear of components. Disconnecting the shift rods from the transmission levers or the shiffter levers (whichever is easier) will confirm if its an internal transmission problem or not.

I knew a family that had an old Nash Metropolitan and that car had a problem with getting stuck between gears. They carried an old wood baseball bat in the car to knock the colomn shift levers back into a spot where it would shift again.
 
We used to have this problem in the late 70's with the old Holden HQ Police cars. Linkages got sloppy with age, shift too quick and the lever would hang up, jump out and lift the bonnet (hood), belt the linkage with the old wooden baton and then off again.

GB
 
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