I have noticed over the past three times of driving my 1950 Chevy Coupe that it is getting harder and harder to get the car to go into gear. The column shifter (three on the tree) seems to be getting stuck and will not go into second gear from first. On two occassions I had to pull over, pop the hood, and manually move the rod at the end of the steering column. I am guessing that the column shift assembly is in need of some service. I ordered the replacement bushings for the assembly today and plan on doing the job over the upcoming weekend. Any tips on doing the rebuild on a column shift 3 speed? Any do's and don'ts learned in the past? What lube should I use (i.e. grease). Thanks in advance.
How annoying is that????????? Yeah, it really sucks to get stuck in first gear and have to pull over and stop to fix. When I had that problem years ago I had to tie a long spring onto the reverse/ 1st shift arm under the hood to help pull it up out of first. 15 years or so and it's still workin fine.
About a year ago my column shift in my '55' chevy car was getting harder and harder to shift between 1st and 2nd. I looked through all the catalogs for replacement parts and even bought a floor shifter. I ended up pulling the column out and tearing apart all the shifter parts on the bottom of the column. I didn't replace anything - just cleaned everything really well - and reassembled with some light white grease. After I got the adjustment squared away, the car now shifts like new. Apparently it just had 55 years of crud in there. Have fun.
I had the same problem with my 50 Chevy. I ended up converting to a floor shifter. The box where the linkage is wears down on 49-54 chevy quick. My brother has a 54 Chevy Belair and another friend of ours has a 53 Chevy pick up. We all had the same problem. Sometimes we would get the car into third gear and it would pop into second. Plymouth had a good system with their transmissions. Chevy in those years had issues. I would convert it to a floor shift unless you like the old school feel. The two speed powerglide was nice in those days. I put one in a friends car and it ran a lot smoother.
I have a 3 speed gear box that the secondary shaft was so worn down i thought it was broken, real sloppy. The thrust washers broke and all hell started to wiggle loose. Had nothing to do with linkage. If your linkage or floor shift doesnt fix it, pop the side shift cover and see if any of the shafts have excessive play, or teeth wear. Another box I got sounded like a piggy bank when I rolled it around on the bench. Popped the side cover and 13 teeth fell out. They all broke off of the 2nd gear on the main shaft.
thats why they came out with aftermarket floor shifters.... lol but in all honesty, just buy another box, you cant really rebuild them the parts just wear out.
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