No Park...bad pawl..or Linkage issue

[Bret2094]

Alright guys so here's the setup,1972 plymouth duster with 727 tranny with a B&M floor shifter. Yesterday i drove around the block in the duster and as I went to put the thing in park when i got back, I heard this loud clunk and as soon as i let off the brake, the damn car starts rolling backwards. The car will still start, and i can shift into the other gears, but park is gone. I read somewhere that the pin in the tranny for park is called a pawl? Something in the manual about a spacer for the linkage??Anywho, what steps should i check to see if my linkage is just messed up, or if the pawl is bad. I need the version for dummies. Thanks


Bret

 

[Bad Sport]

I would unhook your shifter cable at the trans and manually put it in park and see if it holds, IF it does then look at your cable adjustment.

 

[TrailBeast]

There are a couple of reasons this can happen.
The knob on the end of the park rod came off (seen it more than once) or the pawl end broke off, or the linkage broke where the park rod goes into it inside the trans.
If everything else seems normal, but park won't lock in you might get away with just pulling the tailshaft housing and replace the pawl or knob on the end of the park rod.

Welding or brazing it back on works just fine for the rod end but you would be best off to relace the pawl if it broke.

Here is the rod that sticks out into the tail housing and the end might have come off, and the pin that hold the pawl on the case.
Both accessible with the tail housing removed.

 

[Bret2094]

Is this normal to do without removing the tranny from the car? As understand you have to remove the bolts, then remove the rear trans mount and there are two philips head screws on the tailshaft holding on a metal plate. After removing the screws and the plate, under it is an access hole to get at the clip on the tailshaft support bearing. Ive gotta remove that clip with a snap ring pliers set. That about right? or am i missing something?

 

[TrailBeast]

Is this normal to do without removing the tranny from the car? As understand you have to remove the bolts, then remove the rear trans mount and there are two philips head screws on the tailshaft holding on a metal plate. After removing the screws and the plate, under it is an access hole to get at the clip on the tailshaft support bearing. Ive gotta remove that clip with a snap ring pliers set. That about right? or am i missing something?

It's normal to do if it's the pawl or rod knob, but otherwise the pan has to come off.
There is only the linkage end of the rod after that but it's pretty rare for that end to break without loosing the control of the whole shifting thing.

Sounds like you have a good grip on what it takes to get to it.
Speedo cable is only other thing I can think of besides the driveline.