I'm gonna recap what every one has said, because I think you need it all on one page. At or near the end are some notes; be sure to read them all.
Method
#1)Jack the rear tires into the air
#2)Put the tranny in neutral,disconnect all the linkrods, all of them.
#3) verify that the tranny is in neutral by turning the driveshaft. If the driveshaft does not turn, find out why and fix it
#4)grab the frontmost lever,on the tranny.If it is pointing up, move it to the front to engage 4th gear.Verify that the driveshaft does not turn. Put that frontmost lever back into neutral. Verify that the driveshaft again turns.
#5)Take that very same lever and move it to the rear now, to engage 3rd. Make sure it goes all the way forward into the detent. Verify that the driveshaft does not turn. Move that lever back into neutral, and verify that the driveshaft again turns.
#6)Grab the reverse lever, and shift it in,all the way in. It should move easily until it hits the synchronizer sleeve, It may momentarily hick-up there,as the pointy teeth find a way to bypass eachother, but continue until you hear the detent pop in.Verify that the driveshaft does not turn.
If the lever, at the beginning of the shift seems tight, you will have to fix that, see note(1)
If after indexing the cover, it still seems hard see note (2)
If the lever does not find resistance at about 1/2 way through it's stroke, or hits a wall and will not move, see note (3)
Move the reverse lever back to neutral, and verify that the driveshaft again turns.
#7) Grab the 1-2 lever. If it is pointing up, shift it to the front to engage 2nd. Verify that the driveshaft does not turn.Make sure it is fully engaged. Wiggle the lever back and forth to feel the detent. It should be difficult to initiate movement in either direction, but immediately following, it should become much easier. Backshift to neutral and verify that the driveshaft again turns.
#8)Grab same lever and rotate it to the rear to engage 1st.Make sure the lever is fully detented.Verify that the driveshaft does not turn.Backshift to neutral and verify that the driveshaft again turns.
#9)At this point we know that everything inside the tranny is working fine.
#10)If at any time the driveshaft does not turn when it should, it may be because a brass ring has screwed itself onto a shift-cone. Grab a tire and forcefully crank it over to brake it loose.
Notes;
1)loosen the side cover, all bolts.Push up hard on the cover, hold it there and tighten the two bolts nearest to the lever. Verify that the shifter now initiates movement easily and smoothly.Secure the rest of the bolts and retest.
(2) Anchor the reverse detent housing with a large open-end wrench(very important), and remove the small reverse detent plug. Recheck the operation of the reverse lever.If it now feels good, then;a)You may have erred on the feel, or b) the detent is actually too stiff.The only way to make it easier is to shim the plug out.(I use paper washers), or c) the detent house is in too far and the internal reverse lever is dragging on it .Loosen the big HH and back it out a half a turn NO-MORE, retest. If clear(better) that detent housing will have to come out and be shimmed out.(I use paper washers). But first you will have to remove the detent mechanism with a magnet. There are two pieces, the spring and a ball. The bottom of the tube is open. If you do not fish out the ball it will fall into the trans, beware!
(3) Did you by any chance put the 1-2 slider on backwards? The pointy teeth of the slider must be pointing to the pointy teeth on the reverse gear.
(4)It is very important to prove that each shift is properly and easily detenting.This should prove that the energizer springs are correctly located and no struts have popped out.
(5) Proving the driveshaft after every shift proves that all the shift-forks are correctly located on the sliders, and none are bent.
(6) The levers on the tranny should be pointing up, except;If you have an O/D box, the frontmost shift lever must be installed pointing down.
(7) reverse at the shifter should to the left and forward
(8)The levers on the tranny must be tight and stay tight. This is critical. I cannot stress this enough. If they move after the gate is set, you will have endless shifting issues.
(9)The shifter must be mounted tight to the adapter, and the adapter must be tight to the tranny.If they move after the gate is set, you will have endless shifting issues.The adapter-plate is well-known to come loose. It uses three special allen-socket flat head SCREWS, and external tooth multi point washers. I blue-loctite and torque them, and then they stay put.
(10)more to follow if I think of anything.
So now, it follows that if the tranny is fine, then the problem lies with the shifter or its install.
You say you rebuilt the shifter. Did you take it apart? Did you take pictures? The Hurst shifter looks pretty simple, but is anything but simple.Every separator plate is different and has a specific orientation. It is very easy to get parts mixed up.So the first thing to do is to verify that all the levers are in the correct locations, and correctly oriented, and that the beast truly shifts.
You will have to clamp the shifter in a bench vise to prove it works. Do not minimize this step. If you don't have such a vise, go find somebody who does.How many times are you willing to RnR the shifter?
.............Insert pictures here................
Finally
So after the shifter is proved,it's time to reinstall it, insert the correct 1/4 inch set-pin, and hook up all the link-rods.Each rod has it's own location and orientation. The pins on the shifter-end swivels of the 1-2, and 3-4 rods usually point to each other.The reverse goes on last.The 1-2 is first in line.
It is possible to mix up the front two external levers; IIRC, the 1-2 swivel goes into it's lever from the backside, while the 3-4 swivel goes in from the outside. I'll have to check.
