Hydramatic Locking up

[Deleted User]

Hydro is from a '53 Hornet, rebuilt about a year & a half ago, 9000 miles on it. Backing out of a parking place it does fine. However, when you shift up into DR3 it locks up in this gear not moving up or down. Limped home this way. Any thoughts ?

lostmind

Without a lot more info , I would guess the governor is hanging up. It's probably the easiest part to get to in a hydramatic. Pretty common problem. I would remove it and clean and inspect.

[Deleted User]

It goes from Reverse stiffly into Lo or DR3. Once in DR3 it shifts fine, 1-2-3, but the shift lever itself locks up and won't go into DR4 or N. Sometimes the shift lever goes up into DR3 and sometimes barely goes beyond LO. No slipping or anything at any time, it just will not manually select the forward gears very well...Hope this helps.

[Deleted User]

OK, found it ! It was the linkage....Specifically, the neutral-safety switch had come loose enough so that it rotated around counter-clockwise on its mounting and was jamming the linkage, preventing selection of Dr-4 & N. Go figure. One thing you know about old cars. Drive one long enough and you will learn something....Thanks to everyone for your contributions !

Glowplug

Glad that you got the linkage sorted and the tranny shifting right again.