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My son drove the car from the driveway into the garage and put it into reverse to park it, now it's stuck in the reverse side of the shift pattern. It will go into reverse and neutral but the reverse lockout won't allow the lever to move into the 1-4th gear area of the shift pattern. Any easy fix for this?

Rick

Rick you are saying the shifter won't go over, [as into the "H" pattern] or it will not actually shift? If it is the shifter will not slide over, I am betting your shifter needs a rebuild, this is pretty common with an brands of well used shifters, I've had a couple myself and for a long while, stick cars were pretty rare in my price range when I wanted one, so that means I have only had a few stick cars. If the tranny will not shift it could still be the same thing as the sloppy shifters ends up putting the tranny [almost] into two gears at once. Just somethings to check out, at least the checks are free of expenditure, except time. Harry

Turns out it's the shifter, any good shifters someone could recommend? Or is rebuilding a good option?

Did you get it out of gear? I had one that locked up between 2/3 on a left hand turn. I had to reach under the car and wiggle the rear most gear lever on the tranny. that it would work again. bushings probably all worn out.

There are also 3 rubber grommets that mount the stock shifter to the floor. If these are bad it can cause problems as well. Most people never check these and they are over 40 years old now.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/142406544397?ss ... 1555.l2649

Thanks for the info, I've got a line on two used shifters that will work and I've got a mechanically incline friend coming over next week to have a look. Are the internal bushings available for a rebuild Clyde?

Rick

The adjustment on these shifter arms can be pretty tricky. I had this issue and installed the missing grommets Clyde mentioned above. Since our shifter mounts to the floor rather than the trans, binding can occur and if the shifter arms are off by the slightest amount it can cause the trans to be in two gears at once. I ended up shining a light into the shifter from the top to study exactly what was going on then went under and made the adjustment necessary to fix the issue that I thought I was seeing and haven't had any problems since. I believe the adjustment I made was on the far passenger side shift arm which would be the reverse arm. It was only like a few mm adjustment.

This is a manual car? Are you sure the locking nut on the shift arm is not loose (under car). Is the transmission stuck in reverse or is it going into neutral? Sounds to me like the transmission went into reverse and when you pulled back on the shifter the loose lever adjustment nut allowed the rod along adjustment slot to move but the transmission is still stuck in reverse.

Is the shifter adjusted properly. Loosen shift lever nuts. Transmission levers all in neutral. Shifter in neutral and pin through alignment slot( use the largest drill bit that fits. Tighten nuts.

If shifter will not go into neutral when disconnected from transmission arms try unscrewing the shifter knob and remove the t handle and internals that actuate the reverse lockout.

The shifter works randomly, in the sense that it changed from 1-3 well last night when I brought it home from the shop, then today it shifted from 1-3 until I stopped at a stop sign then when I put it into neutral to go back to 1st it went to 4th and stayed there even though the lever was in the neutral position. It's now in the garage waiting for my friend to come next week.

The saga continues!

Rick

yeah, it does sound like something with the shifter. There must be A LOT of play in the shifter.

Yup!!! Hopefully fixed next week!

I MIGHT be able to get some shifter bushings. I am trying to look into it and see, ........

It works again!!! Had a mechanic friend come over and together we rebuilt the shifter. He had brought over a Vega shifter and we cleaned and greased that up to get it ready to swap with the one giving me grief, when we took out my shifter we saw that the Vega one wouldn't be a good fit. We then took apart my shifter and cleaned out 37 years of grime and grit,ground down some burrs, greased it all up and put it back in. SUCCESS!!! Thanks for the advice, you guys are great.

Rick