Shiftworks - 02/06/2016

While working on the '73, I needed to move this car out of the garage. Once the '73 was done, it was time to move it back into the garage. Unfortunately that's when things all went horribly wrong last weekend and the car got stuck between gears 1/3 of the way up my hill. I tried to free up the transmission but the car ended up falling on me and missing me with inches to spare. That was not cool. I was angry. "Fire" was how I think I described it to my nice neighbor lady who tried to be supportive. In the end, a tow truck was needed and I got the car sitting on the side of the road in front of the house. I cooled off and read the forecast called for snow, which I didn't want this car getting salted and sprayed, so it needed to get fixed ASAP.



Get the diagram of how the system is supposed to work from the factory service manual. Never hurts to have a factory reference, especially if you don't know what it's supposed to look like or if it was done correctly. Being an aftermarket Hurst Competition Plus shifter from a '67 GTO, it obviously won't match but it will at least be a start.



Discussions from several people indicated that the rear wheels being on the ground and being stuck in between gears will cause the transmission to be incredibly difficult to get un-stuck. So, gotta get the car in the air. In the street. It's fun.



Jack stands in a very well placed position, nice and flat. Keeps the axle up and simulates the car on the ground.



Very important to make sure the front of the car is stable and not going anywhere. Note front wheel chock to keep car from rolling.



I removed the shift rods last week to try and get the car freed up, but alas. The one bushing present is hard as a rock and was super sloppy in the hole for the transmission levers. Looking at the diagram above it's pretty obvious that the rods were positioned wrong.



Levers are positioned correctly. Transmission is freed up quite easily with the wheels off the ground. It's now in neutral. I lined up the 1-2 rod with the 1-2 lever how it should be, it was put in backwards originally.



No sense putting dirty junk back on. It's greasy enough as it is without me putting back on dirty parts.



Shift rods and trunions are cleaned up. Lots of grime and dirt. The 1-2 rod had several marks in it where it was hitting the transmission case and the reverse rod.



Line up the shifter in neutral.



Reverse rod is lined up and installed with new clip and bushing.



The 1-2 lever and rod are installed and put together correctly. It was lined up almost on top of the reverse rod in the previous install when I first got the car.



The 3-4 lever and rod are now installed too. Everything lines up and shifts pretty smoothly.



And a test drive reveals all 4 gears move in and out MUCH easier than they did previously. The end result of the test drive is the car is back in the garage under cover from the coming snow storm.

Pretty simple thing, amazing. The shifter is worn and not perfect, but it sure feels really nice compared to before. All the gears go easily in and out, Reverse is a little difficult to find as it requires bumping down and to the left and a good solid bump up and to the right to get out of it but I think that might be more of a safety feature of the Hurst Competition Plus to prevent you from going into Reverse when you're power shifting. Next up is to get some backup lights working. Although the car almost killed me last week, I got back in the saddle and fixed it.

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Last updated February 7th, 2016