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Ever since I have purchased my 53 chevy truck
it had always got stuck in 2nd gear..It will
not come out, only if I stop.I have adjusted
my linkage and and tightened it up so it
would not be sloppy. What's up with it..?
How much oil does this transmission hold?
Thank you in advance..

I had a similar problem with a '54 **** I once owned. The problem there was that the transmission kept coming loose. When it came loose, it would sag in the middle (where engine/trans come together) and somehow cause the linkage or trans shaft itself to bind. If I jacked it up a little so the engine/trans came together it worked. You might want to make sure the bolts are the right size with good threads and tightened up good.

My father had a '50 GMC truck when I was learning to drive. It would not go into first gear if you stopped with motor running so you had to double clutch, rev to match engine/trans speeds and shift it into first gear while still moving at 5-10 mph. Never did figure out what was wrong with that. But, I sure learned how to downshift without a clutch on that truck!

2nd isn't the best gear for the tranny's. My 4sp in my '50 3/4T Chevy, always get's stuck in 2nd gear, so I start the truck in 2nd cuz it'll shift up most of the time, but it wont come out when I want to go to first, and it's hard to put it into 2nd anyways. The tranny does need a full rebuild but that's $2000+ so I'm swappin in a T5 5sp out of a S10. If I can find one, I like the manual trannys, they're more fun than the TH350 I have sittin in my garage. Do you want to keep the tranny?

Nate

Well I'd like to keep it as orig. As possible
I picked up another tranny last summer. I
might try a swap and see if it works any
better. But I sure would like to know why it
sticks in 2nd like that.

I don't know the real reason as to why, and I probably wont ever, but I've seen a lot of these tranny's with problems around second and know a lot of people with the same problem, but nobody really knows why they do it. Maybe a factory defect that happens after years of use or just a usually thing that goes wrong???

Nate

$2000 for a 4-speed rebuild? I was considering having mine rebuilt, but I had no idea it was so pricey. Maybe I'll go with the 5 speed also. Will it bolt up to the 216 in a '52 3600?
Tucker

Ok, I'm new at this. I just found the tech tips section with an article answering exactly my question. This is an amazing resource.