step down gear shift adjustment

bent metal
bent metal Senior Contributor
edited May 2012 in HUDSON
1951 Pacemaker three on the tree. Shifts into reverse and first fine. Sometimes second, no third at all. I've adjusted the the retainer thingy that is on top of the steering column (under the hood), to allow the cable to travel more or less. I've moved that to in all the way, out all the way and just about everything in between. That seemed to wildly affect the shifting. But end result was it still wouldn't shift right. I could find second once in a while, even third one time. But if it gets third then it gets hard to get first to engage. ...Any advise?

Comments

  • bent metal
    bent metal Senior Contributor
    Forgot to mention. This is a transplanted set up here. I could have something "basic" wrong here.
  • brumac
    brumac Expert Adviser
    I had similar problems after a clutch change on my 50C6 about 30 years ago. If you pull the transmission top cover you will be able to determine if the gears are being properly engaged. Then you will be able to determine what has to be done instead of guessing. It worked for me 30 years ago and 2000+ miles from home. Bruce
  • Park_W
    Park_W Senior Contributor
    edited May 2012
    Sounds like what happened to a '50 I worked on a while back ... I couldn't find the problem, but Dr. Doiug did right away. The cross-shift lever on the outside of the tranny (the small one at the end of the cable) wasn't on the shaft quite right. Check that ... pull the lever off, then reinstall while being sure the slotted part slides down on the mating protrusions on the shaft. You can do this withut pulling the floorboard.
  • Marconi
    Marconi Senior Contributor
    Also, check to make sure that the shift 'knuckle', the part that the shift lever goes into, hasn't stripped out and is turning on the shift rod on top of the steering column. Splines and a set screw are all that holds these two parts together and I've seen a lot of them stripped out.
  • bent metal
    bent metal Senior Contributor
    Thanks for the advise everyone! I took off the cover. Made the shifter adjustments, straightened up the floor/trans cover while I had it off. Then bent it all back to heck trying to get it back in the car. Also put a bruse the size of a baseball on my arm while installing the floor, not sure how I did that. But it's in and it goes into all the gears nicely. Now onto the clutch. It's a little grabby. Chatters pretty bad going into first. Plus, it's a dry clutch.

    Marconi, I need to get back to you later. The radio comes on, but it doesn't get anything but static, and it won't adjust. ...A problem for another day. But I would like to fix it.
  • Geoff
    Geoff Senior Contributor
    You will never get a dry plate to work properly. Convert it back to the proper wet cork unit.
  • Clutchguy
    Clutchguy Senior Contributor
    edited June 2012
    As Geoff described, plan to convert it back. Guy, it would have to have been completely re-engineered, and use different parts to even consider making this work. I have seen a lot of them done this way, and have not seen one that I would recommend to anyone. The facts are still the same, 1/2 thick flywheel, 3/8th's pins are used to secure fingers to the plate,and then the pivots are very narrow. This design was designed to be lubricated with fluid, and when it's not, it doesn't take very long for it to fail and/or cause it to start chattering. I'm sure I don't need to tell you chattering basically equals the disc is skipping across the surfaces. We didn't even start to discuss what happens to the throw-out bearing, which also needs lubrication to have any longivity. I guess if it has been re-engineered to be a dry set up, it need to be diagnosed piece by piece to see which part or parts is not set-up correctly.
  • bent metal
    bent metal Senior Contributor
    Ok, well,...this is sort of an experiment. Not my experiment, but my brother's and dad's experiment on my car. A surprise for me. And it wasn't even my birthday or anything. ;) They wanted to try this kevlar clutch in dry form. I guess you can do it wet or dry. I'm just glad I didn't have to do all the work, and I'm more than happy to try the set up. I've driven the car a few times now and either it's getting better or I'm getting use to the clutch. I think that everything you guys are saying is correct. But I'm going to confirm it in the next week or two, see if gets any better.

    So how about this kevlar clutch in wet form?
  • Huddy42
    Huddy42 Senior Contributor
    We use bonded Kevlar clutches wet here in Australia, work well, just make sure you use Dexron 11 or 111, DO NOT USE ANY ATF OIL FOR FORD.

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