Locked up shifter....

OK, I'll admit it that my project getting the clutch in my '66 CJ5 is taking longer than I expected (so what else is new?) But when we took it all apart, it was working fine.

Yesterday we finished working under the jeep, except for the skid plate and I set the shifter assembly, which has spent the last month sitting on the passenger side floor in place and it's locked up SOLID. I took it to the vice and tried to move it, NO DICE.

It appears to be in gear. Not sure which gear, just can't get it to move. Anyone have a thought about what I have done???? And how to UNDO it???

Thanks guys,

Tom

 

either the shifter has rusted in place, or the tranny is in TWO gears. sounds like time to pull the cover off and find out which.

 

Well, the problem is...I have pulled the shifter out, and have it sitting in the vice. The tranny should be OK, but the darn shifter won't budge. Could it have rusted the detent ball to the shaft in and caused it to lock up? The shifter doesn't show any signs of rust anywhere that I can see, and I REALLY would prefer NOT to tear it all apart, unless it's the only way to get it moving again.

 

spray some oil on and see if that helps loosen it up.

 

MAN! Why didn't I think of that????!!! This is just the kind of insight that I was looking for!

Thanks man!!!!

 

Good luck Tom. When I bought my '64 the tranny and x-case shifters were all locked up. Sprayed some B'Laster PB in the right spots and let it sit for a couple days. It worked. Then spray some more oil on it as you take it thru the gears.

 

Well that's the part that bothers me. It was working fine when I took it apart a month ago. It isn't like it's been sitting in the rain. I took off the shifter assembly when we were going to drop the tranny/xfer case and set it down in the passenger floor board. Now, a month later, the darn thing is locked up tight. Can't get it to move out of the gear (low I think) that it's in.

 

was the tower cleaned before storage? if yes there is the problem. if no, other issues are at stake......

 

Sorry? What tower?

 

shift tower.

 

If I understand you correctly, you removed the shift tower from the tranny so you could get the tranny out right?

Then you set the shift tower to the side while you worked on the clutch.

Now you've finished with the clutch and have attached the shift tower to the tranny again, and it won't shift?

Am I right so far?

If so, you may have put the tower back on and got the shift forks misaligned.

Pull the tower back off and see if the cane will move inside the tower.

Then you should be able to sort of shift the gears by sliding the two things that the shift forks go in forward and backwards while turning the input shaft, and the gears.

It's not hard to remove and install the shift tower...something like 6 bolts.

I don't even know if it's possible to put the shift tower on wrong, but it's something to look at.

 

I re read your posts more slowly and I stand corrected. Sounds like you've got the tower off and in a vise and the tower is what you're talking about.

I really couldn't imagine it freezing to the point it wouldn't move in that short of a time frame without something binding it up.

Don't push it to hard...you might break something.

Sorry...good luck.

 

OK, I figured it out, I had the shifter in TWO gears at once. There appears to be a detent in the system that keeps you from doing this, so to get thing freed up, I drove the pin out of one of the shifter forks and got things moving around again, found neutral and then reinstalled the pin. Now I'm working.

Thanks for you input guys,

Tom