Stuck in 3rd gear

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mod5v

mod5v

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So it was a nice day and I decided to go for a ride after work. I changed the trany a couple of weeks ago but didn't get a chance to really run it. anyhow I got up to 3rd and it stuck in gear and I had to stop and crawl under the car to get it out. I went home and spent a couple of hours getting the shifter adjusted with the alignment pin and made shur no rods were hitting any thing. took it back out and had the same thing happen. This is a suposedly rebuilt all aluminum non/od trany. any ideas on why it gets locked in 3rd?
I can sit in the car and shift thru all the gears just fine with the motor off. As soon as I drive it and get to 3rd it sticks in gear and I have to stop turn the motor off and get under the car to get it back to neutral.
 
I'd say that the shifter is real sloppy or the rods might be adjusted ok but the bushings are sloppy or ovaled out. If the trans is tight, its got to be in the shifter linkage. When you shift try to pull it out of second go over to the left and follow the H pattern rather than jamming the shifter on an angle from second to third and see if that helps. (I bet it does)
I've had this happen to me before.
 
I ran it real carefull the last time and it didn't help. It's like once a load is put on it in 3rd it locks up and you have to hammer the lever to get it out of gear even with the engine off and the car on jackstands.
 
I had a wore out shifter do that before. I also had a trans mount go bad and it would cause the trans to move enough that the linkage rubbed the frame.
 
Even when I put mine together with new bushings, new shifter, rebuilt trans, and adjusted the rods as per the manual, I still had to make an adjustment, as it was barely going in 3rd and got stuck in 4th on me
you may very well have a worn out shifter, but what you can try is to make an adjustment on the 3-4 shift rod so that you are not going so far into 3rd position
 
I have the trans out sitting on the floor. I'm going to put the shifter on with it out of the car and see if I can find anything that way. I tried a different shifter i had before I pulled it but that didn't help. I am useing levers and rods from my O/D trans if that causes a problem. Have to get my daghters car ready for paint so don't know how soon I'll be able to get back to mine.First things first you know. LOL..
 
Removed the cover and found that the front most syncro(4th?) is damaged and 2 of the spring loaded "keys" are popping up. I think that when the gears are rotating the centrifical force is enough that I can't shift it past the keys into 4th or neutral for that matter. After I get the O/D trans in and things settle down I'll dig a little deeper.
 
So I installed the newly rebuilt O/D trans and within 3 miles it locked in 1st gear and that was it. So after lots of messing arount I pulled it out and poped the cover off. The 1st gear was locked to the main shaft!. I could shift the trans into 3rd--4th-and reverse but it would lock up as 1st would not free wheel on the main shaft. It took a 40 ton press to get the gear off the shaft. both the gear and shaft are junk.
So I take the syncros and "keys" from the O/D trans and put them im my other one. get the shift rods and shifter set up on the bench. Shifts real nice.put it in the car get up to 3rd and it locks in 3rd agen. I was being real gentle but it still hangs up in 3rd. I'm running out of patience with this thing. about ready to put an automatic in. Any sugestions on this besides buying a new trans.
 
check your front bearing. parts "house bearings" sold by parts stores or cheap kits are almost always wrong. This chews up main drive pinions and gear cluster sets at a minimum. I don't have specs on any but the 308 bearing which should be 0.825 thick. a cheap kit bearing will be 0.795.
 
If the concentricity between the bellhousing and the end of the crank is off, you will have this problem. Sounds like that is what is going on since it did it with 2 different transmissions if I read the thread right. It's a royal PITA to measure but easy to fix with offset locating dowels. Just have to make sure that the hole in the transmission mounting surface of the bellhousing is concentric with the pilot bushing in the end of the crank. If they're not, there will be a side load on the input shaft that will cause all sorts of headaches. Hope this helps.
 
I trany locks up in 3rd. 1 trany froze 1st gear to main shaft. 3rd trany with new bearings has been drove hard for 2 months no problems other than shifting is a little stiff. I'm going to get new syncros for this one and try and liten up the shift effort.
 
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