51 Hudson Commodore won't shift into third

Kdancy

Neighbor of mine has a 51 Commodore with OD. Was shifting and driving good until all of the sudden won't shift into third.
I told him I would post this and ask for advice on troubleshooting it.
Thanks in advance! Any insight appreciated!

RL Chilton

Best advice is to keep it below 30. Don't want too high of rpm's in 2nd!

Seriously though, if that's and early tranny with the cable, there's about 6 or 7 serious adjustments to those and every one of them is important. I would get the manual out and start going through them one by one.

Kdancy

Strange thing is he had no trouble what so ever before and then all of a sudden it would not shift into third.
I was surprised at the lack of adjustment info and trouble shooting in the manual. The cable adjustment is covered and has been tried. I am going over and check it with him.

From the manual-
Difficult gear shifting, especially into second gear, is often
caused by the improper adjustment of the cross-shift control
wire or by looseness of the cable anchor clip which secures
it to the bell housing. This results in insufficient movement
being imparted to the transmission inner shift shaft lever to
allow it to fully engage the shift forks. In cases of hard
shifting the "Gear Shift" lever and cross shift control cable
should be adjusted if necessary as follows:
A. Place "Gear Shift" Control Lever, Figure 29 in the extreme
upper position.
B. Loosen control wire casing anchor bracket bolt. Pull
upper anchor bracket (18) up' until all slack is out of
casing and the shift shaft inner lever is fully over into the
low and reverse shifter. (Check this in transmission).
Tighten anchor bracket bolt (35) Figure 30. The control
wire anchor should have clearance at top and bottom.

J Spencer

"It won't shift into 3rd" Do you mean that the shift lever is blocked from putting it in gear or does the shift lever go in but it act like it's in neutral?. I would think that something inside the tranny is wrong as opposed to linkage. It would be odd that the linkage would go out of adjustment that bad in an instant. You have all the other gears correct?.

Kdancy

J Spencer, the shift lever will go to the neutral position out of second but not into third. All other gears ok.

lostmind

Can you disconnect the shift linkage and move the lever into third?
would tell you if it's internal or external.

Kdancy

tried that (took the shifter rod off the trans lever) and still couldn't move it (the trans lever) into third. The cable linkage was still hooked up.

lostmind

I no longer have a shop manual , so I'm going by memory. I think you can pull the carpet and floor pan and remove the trans cover in the car?

Kdancy

Yes, it appears that will be our next move.