Slick 60's

Doc,

I can almost bet you have worn out bushings at each end of the shift rods, both at the column and at the tranny. my 64 3 speed use to do that to. I bought my new bushings and seals on ebay. an original ford part. mostly all 3 speed ford vehicles are the same i believe. mine were advertised as for a falcon and i bought them as a package for $3.00. I believe you can get them from repro companies now. my truck shifts like a dream and has never had a problem since. I just keep them lubricated often.

Travis

My truck did the same thing and it cost me 7.00 to replace bushings

[quote="Doc Pepper"]I was on my way home when slowing down for one of the ever increasing traffic signals in this town when I couldn't get the TOT to shift out of high gear.

Mine -66 do the same sometimes. Cant change from third to first directly so I must have to go up in second first.

my 65 did that when i first got it.. I was so happy my first drive pulled out into traffic and couldnt get it out of 1st.. i was so embarressed lol I would have to get out and give the linkage a yank and all was well.. after a while I figured out the secret ship pattern that my truck required.. then it started getting really bad so i bought a hurst shifter and put it in the floor.. I am very pleased...

joey

Prolly a combination of wear in the bushings and wear in the lower end of the column. New bushings usually solve. Most times the reason they "lockup" is that the linkage is so worn that it doesnt get pulled completly out of gear and the interlock pins in the tranny wont let it go into another gear. Try to move the shift lever slightly past neutral when coming out of a gear, then into neutral, then into a gear.
Fred

I left out that not only were the bushings gone, but when I crawled under it, the linkage at the bottom was held on with bailing wire. Well I did get it off a ranch. So the bushings and hardware really made a big difference

Chris

Probably bushings and adjustment. There is a lot of monkey motion in that shift linkage.

Joey, which shifter did you use? I have the Mr Gasket 7667 in mine, & it likes hanging in 1st at the most inopportune times, or a 2-1 shift. Have the car version in my Fairlane & does the same thing (hanging in 1st), so I always thought it was a junky shifter. I see shifter bushings in the DC catalog as P/N C3TZ-7343-A on page 29, is this what you guys are talking about?

PJ