While driving the Model A today I went to shift from second to high gear and its stuck in second gear. Got an 8BA flathead with a 52 top loader three speed from a pickup (open driveshaft). This never made any strange noises and never has in the 1200 miles that this combo has been running. Popped the top off the trans and cannot pry it out of second with a couple of large pry bars. Don't want to get too rough with it. This acts like it over shifted and will not come out of second gear. Any ideas what could cause this problem?
Update.. I drained the oil out of it and there doesn't seem to be anything wrong there. This thing shifted smooth as can be in and out of all the gears except this one time, never has made any strange sounds. It is just hung tight in second. I put new syncros and bearings in it when I built this car and it has only about 1,200 miles on it. Was flawless until this. Baffled to say the least !!!
with the cover off you can move the syncro too far, and get the detent springs and balls to let go. but, driving down the road that should not happen. i would jack up the rear end, and have a helper push in the clutch pedal so you can take any load off, and turn it over by hand and look at the syncros and see if it moves with no load. is your shift tower in good shape?
I had a problem like that, it was defective slider dogs/palls. [the little sheet metal things in the slider] they bent and jammed into place.
^^^^^ had the same problem. It turned out to be a broken spring that tensions the dog/pall as mentioned above.
I'm in the process of pulling the engine and trans together as a unit but it will be a couple of days before I can complete it as I got called to work for a couple of days for a friend. I'm retired but don't want to pass up the chance to make a little cash on the side, that's what pays for hotrod parts and repairs. When I tear it apart I will be looking hard at the springs and slider parts. Who knows, maybe its time for the s-10 five speed. Thanks for the replies and if anyone else has any experience with this please weigh in with your ideas.
My experience. I too had that problem and found I failed to torque a few transmission support bolts after installing a new flathead. Just something to check.
OK here is what I found. One of the three little sheet metal inserts in the second-third gear syncro hub had the end break off and the spring locked it into second gear. Got new ones from Van Pelts this time and I'm back on the road again. First ones were from Mac's Antique Parts (Eckler's) and lasted less than 1200 miles. Probably made in China. Shifts great again and doesn't stick in gear so far, just need to put some miles on it as soon as the weather cooperates. Been raining for the last three weeks just enough to keep everything wet. No fenders so that sucks.
personally, macs is the last resort to buy ANYTHING as far as i am concerned. there are many other parts sources, vanpelts for sure for hard parts, but any other things can be bought without ecklers
Yes, unfortunately several of my purchases from Ecklers did not work as advertised. New master cylinder that had a crack in the bore that they wouldn't warranty, parking brake cable that the balls on the ends of the cable were too big to fit through the backing plate tubes, transmission countershaft that was slightly undersized, pressure plate that had wrong measurements between the fingers so that every time I bolted the trans to the engine the clutch would release, the list goes on. A lot of the parts are just similar to originals, not duplicates. Now I try to avoid them. Mac Van Pelt has saved me a couple of times now, he knows exactly what I'm looking for when I call.
The Jalopy Journal
