With a little effort, I was able to get the trans in neutral. I got the shifter box pinned in neutral and installed. Tomorrow, I'll install the linkage and shifter.
Lining up Linkage, A833
- Thread starter charliec
- Start date
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I think I've gotten the linkage hooked up in neutral and all the shifter rods in the right places. I'm kind of bothered by how low the reverse linkage sets below the cross member, but that's where it fits.
I'm missing something here. Don't you know about the neutral alignment hole? Where you stuff a rod/ screwdriver/ allen key? Download yourself a service manual, free, from MyMopar. But I concur with "starting it in gear." Just put the thing in HIGH gear so the starter has no "leverage" and see if the engine cranks freely. You can pull the coil wire and ground it.
Both transmission levers should be in the "middle" position and both shift box levers should be aligned, and once again, THERE IS A HOLE through them for that purpose
The remaining fly in this soup is ARE YOU SURE you have a "straight through" 4 speed and not an overdrive box? OD box the 3/4 shift lever must point down, because when you select 3rd gear with the shifter you are actually in 4th/ straight through at the gearbox, and when the OD shifter is in 4th, you are actually in the gearbox position of the 3rd gear, which has been re-geared to be the OD gear
Both transmission levers should be in the "middle" position and both shift box levers should be aligned, and once again, THERE IS A HOLE through them for that purpose
The remaining fly in this soup is ARE YOU SURE you have a "straight through" 4 speed and not an overdrive box? OD box the 3/4 shift lever must point down, because when you select 3rd gear with the shifter you are actually in 4th/ straight through at the gearbox, and when the OD shifter is in 4th, you are actually in the gearbox position of the 3rd gear, which has been re-geared to be the OD gear
Yes, you must be missing something. Apparently, you haven't read the whole thread.
Yes, I know about the neutral alignment hole. I aligned the shifter mechanism to neutral with the barstock tool as shown in the FSM. No, starting in gear is not an option as the engine is not running yet. What makes you think that I might have an OD trans???
Yes, I know about the neutral alignment hole. I aligned the shifter mechanism to neutral with the barstock tool as shown in the FSM. No, starting in gear is not an option as the engine is not running yet. What makes you think that I might have an OD trans???
Yup. Unless you want to pull the shift lever over and BACK to get it in reverse. Or if you have a inline shifter with a separate reverse lever.
Then you put it down.
Good catch! Thanks. I'll fix that. That should help with my problem of the link hanging so low. 
I think I have finally licked this thing. After my last post, I got the reverse tab changed to the correct orientation, but there was some things that I just wasn't satisfied with. It was very hard to find all 4 forward gears and I almost didn't find reverse at all. Something was obviously not correct. The only thing I could do was to disassemble and start over. I knew the procedure backward and forward, but I had obviously made a wrong move somewhere.
I studied the shifter box closely and determined that the neutral locking pin that I had devised could have been better. Here's a tip for anyone who plans to do this with a homemade neutral locking pin. Use the pattern from the FSM to get started.
But, my advice is to cut it a little larger in dimension than the FSM specifies and then start grinding it down from there till you reach a width, length and thickness that will JUST fit into the alignment slots of the shifter box. It needs to be a really snug fit to get all the shifter arms locked in neutral and have your shifter links fit properly. I'm convinced that the problem I was having was caused by too much slop in the locking pin that I intially made. It was too narrow so that when I slid it all the way in, the reverse lever had too much play front-to-back. I guessed at where to adjust the linkage to, and I guessed wrong. That threw everything off. The new tool has a much closer tolerance and it worked like a charm.
I now have 4 forward gears and a reverse. Case closed.
Thanks, everyone, for your excellent help.
I studied the shifter box closely and determined that the neutral locking pin that I had devised could have been better. Here's a tip for anyone who plans to do this with a homemade neutral locking pin. Use the pattern from the FSM to get started.
But, my advice is to cut it a little larger in dimension than the FSM specifies and then start grinding it down from there till you reach a width, length and thickness that will JUST fit into the alignment slots of the shifter box. It needs to be a really snug fit to get all the shifter arms locked in neutral and have your shifter links fit properly. I'm convinced that the problem I was having was caused by too much slop in the locking pin that I intially made. It was too narrow so that when I slid it all the way in, the reverse lever had too much play front-to-back. I guessed at where to adjust the linkage to, and I guessed wrong. That threw everything off. The new tool has a much closer tolerance and it worked like a charm.
I now have 4 forward gears and a reverse. Case closed.
Thanks, everyone, for your excellent help.
Wow!
The line up pin is a starting point. I don’t use one any more.
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