'48-53 Ford Transmission jumps out of second gear

[metman]

A little background first: We took my brother-in-law's 1941 Ford 2 door sedan for a test drive to diagnose a miss in the 1948 flathead that only occured when hot in summer -- worked fine in winter. We finally removed the electronic distributor and replaced with the 1941 mecahnical, dual point, distributor and also replaced the straight brass connectors inside the 90 degree rubber boots on the dostributor with shade tree fashioned 90 degree brass connectors to relieve pressure on the crab distributor cap making it not fit securely onto the distributor base. This seemed to solve the intermitant miss problem. Much more to the story but not pertinant to the subject line except that the off-subject story required more test driving. After numerous test drives the transmission decided to refuse to shift into second and third (high gear). It would shift into Low and reverse ok.

This is a 3-speed standard transmision 1948-1953 era housing (some of the gears are from a 1957 pick up - a bit irrelvant because the guts are mostly or all interchangeable or maybe my bro-in-law is wrong about that? ). Unlike the 1940 Ford, the 1941 transimission cannot be removed from the bottom. Therefore we had to use 2 cherry pickers -- one to lift the engine and move it fwd and one to reach thru the door and lift out the trannie -- we are both old geezers so could not wrestle the trannie by hand. Sincro-meshes were well worn which was probably the probem? He had a spare transmission only needed seals at the side cover (another off-subject story requiring special modification of modern standad seals). With the spare trannie in place, it pops out of second gear but all other gears work fine.

We now have the transmission shifted into second, seat moved back, floorboard up, shift linkages from steering column removed from shift levers on trannie side cover, tansmission side cover removed. The second-to-third gear slider is fully in the correct position. ANY ideas?

Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability

 

[metman]

Forgot to mention that when the linkage from steering colunm is removed from the shift lever for 2nd-3rd gear there is excess space between the linkage and shift lever on the side cover of the trannie. In other words, the linkage is not limiting the travel for moving the 2nd-3rd slider inside the trannie.

Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability

 

[MikeHalloran]

ISTR that second gear popout is a classic symptom of a worn pilot bushing. ... or a bad/failing input shaft bearing ... or broken springs behind the ball detents on the shift fork mechanism. ... or ... you need an older geezer.




Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[MikeHalloran]

And one more thing; there's a detent (I think maybe three shoe-shaped things) within the 2-3 shift sleeve, that is energized by a nearly circular spring, all within the 2-3 shift sleeve assembly, all subject to wear and fracture after mere decades of service.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[RossABQ]

This behavior (especially when using 2nd for engine braking) is usually due to excessive cluster gear or main shaft end-float. There are replaceable, babbited thrust washers on each end of the cluster. The rear washers are usually where the problem is. The main shaft thrust clearance is a little more complicated. Check with Van Pelt Sales,

http://www.vanpeltsales.com,

he sells an excellent how-to-rebuild book and sells all the parts needed.

 

[metman]

Thanks a bunch for all the advice. With this info we should be able to geeze it out.

I am beginning to dislike the overused "lol" in texting when a cc will do, but I did a real LOL for[ or ... you need an older geezer.]
RossABQ: I will check that link and suggest he buy that book but he is almost as cheap as me. cc

MikeHalloran, ISTR = ?

Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability

 

[JayMaechtlen]

IRTR = I Seem To Recall

Jay Maechtlen

http://www.laserpubs.com/techcomm

 

[golfpin]

Hi old geezers,
just had to chip in here, I was 15 years old when I bought my first Car 1938 Ford V8 I had got hold of a american hot rod book and I was going to build me a hot rod! The gbox problem has been well covered by some of the very knowledgeable men out there I just didn,t realise how old I am!! remember that box so well, small addition to what that great contributor Mike O,halaran had to say about that spring ... one of the tricks in those days a to take said spring, trace its arc onto a piece of paper and using a pair of pliers work around the spring gently and expand it about a sixteenth of an inch offering up to the trace as a guide line. The next trick was if the synchro cones were worn was to silver solder the faces and turn them back to size this would have to be guesstimated but half the way up gear cone would be about right. Just thought it might be of interest to us old timers can truly identify with when "the other day could lift an Alfa g.box into position alone, bolt up and think no more of it, old age is unkind but that is what memories are built on. All the best with your project.
Golfpin

 

[metman]

Thanks golfpin,
I copied and pasted your posting to an email for my friend who has the 1941 Ford and then remembered that I could also copy and paste the link for the thread which I did. I am presently visitng his sister (along with my wife)in a nearby community. He plans to rebuild the transmission we removed and already has a manual maybe the one from the website given above which website is on his favorites.

Design for RELIABILITY, manufacturability, and maintainability

 

[golfpin]

Thanks for the courtesy of the reply metman hope all the projects work out well, the crab dissy and the dual points sure bring back memories as was the setting of the valves ,no adjustment, grind and fit; the hand fitting and the shimming of the big end bearing and being taught how to use blue and a scraper all history now, including my favourite the slide rule. Have a great day.
Another old geezer Golfpin>