It was a beautiful day for a drive in Michigan today...

I was crusing down the highway taching about 3500 and pulled off
for gas and could not get first or third gear!

No warning... This muncie 4 speed always shifted a little "notchie" for a hurst but always worked fine.

leaking some oil under the car but not unusal for this engine (rear intake gasket leaks at high RPM)

2nd and 4th still work the same as before.

any words of wisdom?

shifter? trans? fluid?

Thanks, John

 

Does it feel like its engaging in first and third?
Or is the shifter just kinda limp when you try 1st and 3rd?

 

Kind of limp, I did push and hold and got first once.

 

Sounds like the linkage came loose or something fell apart in the shifter

Get underneath and tighten all the linkage especially where the rod ends mount to the side cover of the trans
You should only need a 9/16 wrench
ps: Make sure after you tighten everything up that the arms on the cover are straight up and down ... neutral

 

Thanks Bob

 

Man..this happened to me just a few months ago in my 78.....Only ended up with second gear..the shifter was loose between 1st & 2nd,and would not go into 3rd,4th or reverse..turned out the 1st to 2nd rod keeper spring clip fell out,and the linkage came off the shift rod to transmission..easy fix..

Good luck..
Rich

 

Thanks Rich,

I hope this is the problem.

 

I hope it's your shifter linkage, but the first thing that came to my mind was that your synchro rings are toast.

 

I have something similar. Shifting into 2nd and 4th is very smooth. Shifting into 1st and 3rd has more resistance-- sometimes especially with first it takes a pretyy good push to get it into gear. I'll get under the car and look at my linkage as well.

Sometimes when I punch it, the car jumps out of 1st or 2nd gear. Is this also related to the linkage adjustment?

 

For the first and third rings to both take a crap at the same time would be quite a coincidence...

BUT.....

Honestly I dont know squat about the inner workings of a transmission so these 2 gears could be related... I have no idea

 

Jumping out of gear suggests bad sychros...

 

Well if that's the case-- sounds like a good winter project!

Thanks for the info

 

I think your 1st 3rd stop bolt on your linkage needs adjusting. The hurst linkage is great if properly adjusted. There is a hole in the side of the shifter. This is to set the neutral position and adjust the linkage. There is an angled set bolt front and back. This is to set how far your arms move to engage trans. The front set bolt is a stop for your 1st and third. The rear set bolt is the stop for your 2nd and fourth. I disconnect the 2 long rods at the trans. Install a pin that fits snugly in the hole on the shifter body at neutral. Put the trans arms in neutral. adjust rods till they drop into the holes in the side cover arms easily. Remove pin. Then, with the arms unhooked manually put the arm on the trans in first. Put the shifter in first. The linkage rod should slide right into the trans arm hole. If it don't you have to adjust, back off, the front stop bolt on linkage till it does. Same procedure in 2nd 4th with rear stop bolt. Hope this helps. It takes a little work but the Muncie with a Hurst linkage, properly adjusted is the best, quickest, most positive shifting set up I have ever used.

 

It sounds like a bolt on the adapter plate on the tail-shaft has worked itself out. No chance it's a transmission failure (2 seperate gear-sets on the cluster.)

 

Torqvette,

Thanks for the input. I wondered about synchro rings too. the shifting has always been "notchie" but all gears felt the same and the Hurst comp plus shifter was well used. This trans could have been well used also, I did a automatic to Muncie swap a couple of years ago and never had any issues till today. I probably should have rebuild the trans at that time but was told it was fine.

can you tell me if 1st and 3rd synchro rings are related to each other? it was very odd that I lost both gears at the same time after just crusing at high speed with no shifting involved.

as I mentioned I was "dripping" more than usual but it felt and smelled like motor oil not gear oil and I do leak at the rear intake gasket when I get up on the RPM's

It feels like I just can't get the shifter to move far enough forward to engage those gears but what movement I do get seems kind of limp (little resistance) but I could not tell on the road if it was shifter or internals of the muncie.

Thanks,
John

 

63 mako,

Thanks for the detailed adjustment advise.

I originally set up the shifter as you described with a Hurst instruction manual and bought the adjustment pin too but I never even thought to look at or adjust the front or rear stop bolt!

I wonder now if it may have loosened up and moved. It feels like something is stopping me from pushing the shifter all the way forward and whatever it is its solid.

Any thoughts on why this setup feels "notchie" not smooth like Hurst’s are known for. This Hurst has seen better days but I am not sure of the condition of the syncros. Although all gears feel the same so maybe it’s the shifter.

Again thank you for your help.

John

 

Have you climbed under the car yet and checked to see if everything is tight, no bolts fell out ect:

I think that would be the first thing to check before worrying about the transmission

 

First I would like to thank everyone for the help...

I got the vette up on stands and to my suprise everything looked normal, nothing falling off, everything moved free. It was a mystery...

even the front stop was tight. I started to get that "this is going to be expensive sinking feeling"

So I looked up at the rear stop and through my tears... I could see it to reach it with my hand and it was LOOSE!!!

I backed it off tightened it down and ran it through the gears...

everything is cool

Oh happy day... God bless Corvette Forum!

Thanks Guys!!!

John

 

Sorry John, Must be that almost 50 declining mental faculties thing. The rear stop is for 1&3 the front is for 2&4. I used to know what I was babbling about . Hoped I helped you out though.

 

Dont you mean.. 4 Speed.... Again

Glad it worked out for ya!