I have a '73 with a Muncie four speed. The other day as I was driving to my girlfriend's house, I pulled away from a stoplight, went to shift into second and.........nothing. Let the clutch out and all I got was a revving engine and a lot of coasting. I was still able to skip second and get it into third and fourth, so I figured I'd be able to limp back home without second gear. The next stoplight I get to, I try to put it back into first gear and.......nothing. Uh, oh. Now, I'm left with only third and fourth. At least I was able to ease it back home by getting onto the freeway so I wouldn't have to shift as much. The few times I did have to stop I kind of rode the clutch a little and lugged it out of third to get going. Anyway, I got the car up on jackstands to take a look. I figured the shift linkage rod for first and second gear had lost a retaining clip and the rod had slipped out of the hole in the shift arm. Nope. The bolt holding the shift arm on the transmission had come loose enough to allow the arm to slip off the keyed fitting on the transmission. So I took off the old bolt and lockwasher, found a new lockwasher, threaded it back on, tightened the living $#!% out of it, and then tightened the one for the third/fourth gear arm just to make sure. Moral of the story, next time you're under the 'Vette for one reason or another, take a quick look at the shift arms just to make sure everything's tight.

Bill

 

Thanks, good information. Going to check mine at next oil change.

 

Another thing I do to almost all of the bolts that are taken off for any reason is to put Blue Locktite on them when they are reinstalled. This is the medium strength tightener and works well.
Gary

 

There is nothing like good preventative maintenance! :cheers: