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tranny swap problem

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Old Oct 6, 2009 | 03:50 PM
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Default tranny swap problem

Quite a while back, I posted asking for assistance to do a tranny swap on my 81.

The tranny is on, pedals are on and so are the linkages. Bad part is, when I went in to try the shifter it was just moving freely and catching on to the linkages!

What did I forget and how do I deal with this? PLEASE HELP!
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Old Oct 6, 2009 | 05:43 PM
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What transmission are you using? if its an internal rail type (T5/T56/Tremec), the shifter ball probbaly isn't seated properly in the cup. On some of these transmissions, it is possible to bolt the shifter down without it being seated. If it has external linkage (any 4 speed, Richmond, Doug Nash, etc), it sounds like it just isn't adjusted properly.
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Old Oct 6, 2009 | 10:47 PM
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It's a T10 transmission. Any suggestions what I should do? Can I do something without taking the tranny down?
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Old Oct 6, 2009 | 11:50 PM
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What shifter do you have? A stock type or a Hurst ? Anyway with an external shifter with somebody below and somebody above it should be easy to see whats going on.
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Old Oct 7, 2009 | 01:00 PM
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I'm using the stock type shifter.

The shifter just moves freely and not making contact with the levers to the linkages.

Can I remove the shifter from the inside and work on what needs to be done. That is, if someone can point me to what needs to be done.....
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Old Oct 8, 2009 | 05:12 AM
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does anybody have any suggestions on how I should deal with my problem?

HELP!!!
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Old Oct 8, 2009 | 05:46 AM
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gale is on the money. one person below and you up top with centre shifter cover off and im sure you will see the problem
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Old Nov 9, 2009 | 07:50 PM
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Okay, we took the cross memeber down where the the shifter is bolted on.

We finally got to shift all 4 gears except reverse. Somehow, the shifter won't move over to the reverse side for it to catch the linkage.

I also noticed that the pin is just moving up and down freely when you lift the lever on the shifter. Isn't this supposed to catch on something?
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Old Nov 9, 2009 | 11:33 PM
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Default shifter adjustment

From the description of the problem, it sounds like you need to adjust the shifter and linkage. Look in a repair manual for instructions, but usually it is as easy as unhooking all of the linkage from the shifter, insert a 1/4" rod or drill bit into the shifter alignment holes, which aligns the 3 shifter linkage attachment points, then making sure the the trans is in neutral, adjust all the linkage rods to where they will line up exactly to their corresponding hole in the shifter while the trans is in neutral. You can click the trans into neutral by moving the trans shift levers by hand into the center position on the detents. The reverse lever has only 2 positions, in or out of reverse, so make sure you have this lever out of reverse while doing the adjustment. This should fix the problem unless the shifter is broken or worn severely.
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Old Nov 10, 2009 | 08:43 PM
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THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT VERY CLEAR AND USEFUL INFO!!!!!

We started this about 7 months ago and I really don't want it to end up being a project. I've read articles on here wherein people have done it in 2 to 3 days.

Really difficult when there's not much help around. Thank you once again!!!
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Old Nov 17, 2009 | 10:55 PM
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Originally Posted by Buddy1980
From the description of the problem, it sounds like you need to adjust the shifter and linkage. Look in a repair manual for instructions, but usually it is as easy as unhooking all of the linkage from the shifter, insert a 1/4" rod or drill bit into the shifter alignment holes, which aligns the 3 shifter linkage attachment points, then making sure the the trans is in neutral, adjust all the linkage rods to where they will line up exactly to their corresponding hole in the shifter while the trans is in neutral. You can click the trans into neutral by moving the trans shift levers by hand into the center position on the detents. The reverse lever has only 2 positions, in or out of reverse, so make sure you have this lever out of reverse while doing the adjustment. This should fix the problem unless the shifter is broken or worn severely.
Thank you again for your assistance. We got the shifter to line up and now shifts to all gears.

New problem, the tranny is not in neutral and we tried every sequence to get it in neutral but all failed. There's a time that I turned the wheels (car in jack stands) and both will turn forward but will not turn backwards. The wheels only turn forward and will not budge if you try to turn it backward.

What's wrong and how do we get the transmission in neutral????
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Old Nov 27, 2009 | 04:31 PM
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After several tries, we were able to get the tranny to stay in neutral but when we were attaching the rods, they're too long. Please see pics and if you have any suggestions.





Should i take the rods out and thread them????
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Old Nov 27, 2009 | 05:43 PM
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Are you sure you have the correct arms on the correct gears?

Here is another adjustment page with diagrams - http://willcoxcorvette.com/instructi...ons_locked.pdf
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Old Nov 27, 2009 | 11:01 PM
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That's what's mind boggling. When the shifter was not sitting correctly, the rods reached the transmission perfectly. But that's when I got into the car only to find out that the shifter was floating around.

We took the crossmember down and readjusted the shifter, get it on neutral and reinstalled it. We then had quite a bit of a problem getting the tranny on neutral and when we did, as you can see in the pics the rods just won't fit right.

(Thanks by the way for the illustration.)
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Old Nov 27, 2009 | 11:17 PM
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I believe your shifter ears should be pretty much straight up when in neutral, except for reverse.

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Old Nov 28, 2009 | 12:48 PM
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I'm afraid that if we move it this will cause for the tranny to move out of neutral.

What do you think?
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Old Nov 30, 2009 | 11:23 AM
  #17  
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We moved them as you mentioned and all it did was take the gears out of neutral.

Really getting frustrated with this!!!!

Is the Hurst shifter better and easier to install???
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