Chuzie's '77 Project

[chuzie]

Anyway, I was trying to go through the range one more time before I pull the valve body and noticed something. I should have P-R-N-D-1-2 (6 positions) but I only get 5 clicks from the shifter linkage which means I am missing a click. Now it is disconnected from the column which means I am doing this by hand and I didn't screw up the rigging. Would this indicate I have the manual valve in back wards or something else?

Found a clog in the vacuum line for the modulator and got it hooked back up and still no change so I pulled the valve body.

Pulled the valve body. I didn't have the manual valve in back wards and the C-clip was in the correct position so we can eliminate that. I checked the shifting gear inside the tranny and it has full range of motion and I see nothing obstructing the manual valve unless I am blind. I did observe that the spring that connects to the lower valve body and provides detent spring pressure to the shifting gear has some new wear markings outboard of the roller bearing in the center. The marks are on the outboard fork. This indicates to me that the gear may have been riding on that part of the spring rather than the bearing but would that prevent the shifter from achieving full range? That is a tough one to swallow. I can try to tweak the spring's alignment and see what happens. If that does not work I need some guidance of where to go next with the valve body.

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I am done for the day, here is the update...

I got the shift spring realigned to ride on the shift gear correctly. Just needed a little tweak. I assume this was the problem with the "lost position" because now I have P-R-N-D-2-1. Must have been binding or something but it works now. I also hoooked up the linkage as suggested and got it rigged correctly.

Now since my fluid is on the low side, because of the front oil seal leak, things are slow in the system to respond but I did have reverse and drive. There was some hesitation for them to engage but again the fluid level is suspect right?

Tomorrow I intend to lower the tranny and fix this seal problem unless anyone has any further suggestions before I do so to ensure my issues are resolved. I would certainly hate to lower it another 2 times.

Thanks again.