The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Engine Shop tranny is locked up

Hey Gang,
Today I crawled back under to see if I could free up the tranny,won't budge. Even with one hand trying to move the driveline, and the other on the linkae arms. Tomorrow i'm gonna try and drop the tranny out of my truck, and have a few questions.

How in the world can a manual tranny get stuck in 2 gears at once?
How strong are shift forks?
Anything I should look out for, or do, check when I pull the side plate where the shift arms are?
Also where can I purchase a new set of shifter arms that bolt to the tranny? The one that bolts onto 2nd + 3rd gear split in two. :o
TIA,
David

I musta missed something here. Do you have a 3 on the tree, and what gear(s) are you hung in?

Hi Fred the tranny is a 3speed manual. The shifter used to be on the column, but was put on the floor by a PO. The tranny is stuck in 1st gear + 3rd gear.
David

I knew what to tell you to check for a column shift. Have you tried disconnecting the linkage? If it's not free with the shifter disconnected, it's inside the box. Don't have any manuals here at work, but I would guess a bent or broken fork. Look in the sideplate and see what you find.

Chevy,
I don't have a 3 speed but I doubt that you have to pull the tranny for this one. Maybe someone could jump in here. There are lots of people on this board who know the insides of these pretty well.

My knowledge is limited to the 3 speed non synchro low trannies. There is one synchro gear that rides on a splined locking carrier. One shift arm moves the synchro, the other moves the carrier in the correct symphony to select the gears. If you can see inside the tranny with the side cover removed and tranny still installed, then pull the sidecover first. Disconnect driveshaft, drain oil and pull sidecover and linkage. The shift detents are controlled by spring/pawl action in the sidecover. You can inspect sidecover for damage, then peer inside tranny for grenaded gears or just a stuck synchro/carrier. Look for chipped teeth or metal shavings in oil or bottom of tranny case. The reverse idler gear or the 1st-2nd cluster gear are the ones I used to frag all the time. Its normal to see some slight deformation of the synchro gear teeth where they mesh with other gears during operation.

You may be able to push synchro/carrier back into neutral with some careful application of screwdriver to gears. Sometimes just removing the sidecover and re-orienting the parts will fix the problem. The trannies will hang if the shift forks/pawls get "confused" when the linkage F&^%s up. Then reinstall sidecover and shift tranny by hand. You may need a helper to hold in clutch for some of the tests/adjustments. Grab output shaft and try to spin tranny in neutral and all gears with clutch disengaged, feeling for rough spots or weird noises. You can also reassemble tranny with new shift arm, and leave driveshaft disconnected. Start truck and go through the gears at idle (in cab!) while listening for damage/weird shifting.

Of course if you find excessive wear on side cover shift forks or metal in tranny, pull the tranny and put it on a bench for closer inspection.

good luck

chip

Hi Guys, I got the tranny into nuetral while still in the truck, after removing the benchseat, carpet, floor insulation, and tranny hump cover.
5 minutes of tinkering, and "click" it was out of gear.
The shift arm closest to the bell housing was in gear, and I had to barely move the rear one to get it into nuetral.
I'm going to go ahead and drop the tranny to check the trann + clutch for any damage. A guy my dad works with is making me a new set of shifting arm brackets for the tranny, and she should be operational before the meet in Lodi. I've also took some pics, here they are. :o
David

shift arm brackets
the tranny