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Today I was attempting to park my 67 L79, had difficulty getting it in first. Then began experiencing a burning smell. When I put the shifter in what should be neutral and let the clutch out the car backs up very slowly . Then I put it what should be first , the car wont move. Having the car towed to mechanic.
Any speculations on the malfunction?
Thanks in advance
If there was no previous issues with clutch i would lean toward shifter linkage issue. did burning smell like clutch? will it go into any gear other than neutral with clutch out? reverse is only activated by rear most shifter linkage......
Before you have it towed, safely jack it up and get under and put all three levers in the neutral position manually it's not uncommon for one to stay in gear and the other to go out when there's some looseness or misadjustment in the linkage. If that gets it back to neutral then you need to study the linkage to see where the play or misadjustment is.
Before you have it towed, safely jack it up and get under and put all three levers in the neutral position manually it's not uncommon for one to stay in gear and the other to go out when there's some looseness or misadjustment in the linkage. If that gets it back to neutral then you need to study the linkage to see where the play or misadjustment is.
This.
Sometimes, you can pull up on the reverse lock out T handle and rattle the gear stick back and forth with a little aggression and shake the transmission back in neutral. Then, you can drive it some place to have the linkage fixed instead of towed.
I had this happen to me this past Fall as I was backing the car into the garage. The transmission became stuck in reverse even though I was able to pop the shifter itself in the neutral gate position. Once in neutral I could not move the shifter into any gear no matter what I did. We were able to drift the car down into the driveway and use the reverse gear to back the car onto the lift (in another garage bay) and see what was what. I thought that it might be a problem with the reverse lock out but it turned out that both lock nuts on one of the shifter linkage arms had become way loose and were causing the problem. I stayed in the car up on the lift and held the shifter in the neutral gate while my friend tightened the two lock nuts on the suspect shifter linkage bar. When he was done the problem was solved and I was no longer stuck in reverse. I was stupid for not doing a regular maintenance check on the shifter linkage lock nuts but I learned my lesson. It could have been much worse as I could have been in the middle of nowhere instead of in my own driveway. Hope you find your answer. C.J. Oh and BTW, one thing that I did not experience was any kind of burning smell.
Readjust the shifter linkage. There is a tool you have to make which puts the shifter in neutral. Do a search and you will find the measurements .of the tool. Once inserted into the shifter, the rods can be adjusted. Also, the shifter mounts to a bracket which mounts to another bracket that attaches to the crossmember. Sometimes the lower mounting bolt on the shifter can come loose and cause the problem you are experiencing. Jerry
Most of the vendors sell the tool pre-made and ready to use which Jerry is referring to but to save you a search (if you want to make your own) here are the measurements provided to us by another Forum member. C.J.
As Frankie did, just reach under the car and grab the reverse lever and it will move to the neutral position and then plan on a bit of work on your linkage in the future.
That was a dirty trick that we played on guys that we didn't like when they were in the movie theatre. Took all of 5 seconds and he was not going to move. I saw a guy git pissed and he reved it up and popped the clutch. That broke the reverse idler boss.
I've unjammed shifters without jacking the car up, but I'm not a big guy...
Me too, on GM A-bodies. My '61 (and probably most C2's) is way too low and the shifter much too far up in the tunnel to even get close. Still, my $$ is on bound up linkage for the OP!
I had the same problem several years ago. Mine actually got where it seemed to be partially in both reverse and a forward gear. Releasing the clutch with the engine running would immediately kill the engine. The final solution was similar to the above referenced loose lock nuts. In my case the holes in the shift levers had been “wallowed out” ( important Texas mechanical term) and therefore the linkage was loose. New levers would have fixed my problem but we just welded up the hole and redrilled the proper size. Before any one says it; let me- Bubba fix!
I had to remove all the clutch pedal linkage as well as the bellcrank on more than one old Pontiac GTO to weld up and re-drill the 'wallered out' holes so I would have a functioning clutch. The 'bubba' job I did in 1985 on my '65 GTO is still going strong with no slop or rattles.
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Stuck in Reverse
