Well after a long winters nap I took out the nova. First ride out I got on it and the shifter just decided to stop working. I did a hard shift into third and it would not catch third at all. So i pulled over and it got stuck between first and second quite a few times, neutral just felt weird and nothing on the shifter was right. I could get all of the gears with some effort but I still can't get third and in neutral something just doesn't feel right. It is a brand new m20 transmission, brand new rods, and I took the shifter apart, put it in a bath of wd40 and put it back in. After the issue I pulled the rods and took off the side cover on the trans where everything appeared to be perfect. I put it all back together, aligned all of the shift leavers and they were all adjusted right and were in neutral and it ran great for a few days. First time I got on it after all of this work I made a hard shift into third and I had the exact same problem. I have no idea what to do I need some advise. The shifter is a competition plus for a 72 nova. Thanks
sbcwest
did you use an alignment pin thru the shifter levers to lock them in place while adjusting the rod end lengths so they drop thru the holes in the transmission mounted shift levers perfectly..
did you have the proper bushings installed in the levers..so there is no slop in the holes..
if you take the shifter main assembly off... photograph it.. have a friend there to assist with more photographs.. i usually disassemble the shifter... not a job for a person not into puzzles. a friend was over with his comp plus shifter. saying don't take it apart.. you won't get it back together. he was really insulting my 35 years of experience. i had all the levers and dividers in my hand.. and pretended to sneeze.. dumped them all on the ground. then picked them up.. cleaned them again.. greased them up and reassembled them. again.. NOT for the average tech. its a complicated device .. and all the parts look alike... dirt inside.. additional clearances... burrs on the edges of the divider plates.
i am hoping that who ever assembled the transmission got all the snap rings installed on the main shaft. i kept getting back a shop built saginaw 3 speed... the trans would self destruct and do similar not want to shift issues. one of the snap rings had been left out.
i did not have a shifter when i put the M20 in my 66 GTO decades ago.. i had the shift rods. so i had a machines shop mill some aluminum bar stock thinner and i bent it in a vice and made my own shifter.. see attachment.
i relied a lot on the crossed lever lockouts on the inside of the side cover. but the neat part was i could leave it in a forward gear and push the reverse lever and jam the transmission in forward and reverse at the same time.. locking the input and output shafts.. i could park it on a steep hill and never worry about anything except getting it back to neutral. i which i had put a box around the pivot bolt to support it.. i kept breaking it.. or if i had used something like a japanese engines piston pin as a pivot pin so i could have put the bolt in tension not shear.. see attachment of the drawing.. somebody begged me for that shifter long after the car was gone.. so i gave it to them. when later i ask about it.. oh.. i scrapped it.. alumimum is worth a buck a pound.. he was really lucky to be standing several feet too far to punch.
did you have the proper bushings installed in the levers..so there is no slop in the holes..
if you take the shifter main assembly off... photograph it.. have a friend there to assist with more photographs.. i usually disassemble the shifter... not a job for a person not into puzzles. a friend was over with his comp plus shifter. saying don't take it apart.. you won't get it back together. he was really insulting my 35 years of experience. i had all the levers and dividers in my hand.. and pretended to sneeze.. dumped them all on the ground. then picked them up.. cleaned them again.. greased them up and reassembled them. again.. NOT for the average tech. its a complicated device .. and all the parts look alike... dirt inside.. additional clearances... burrs on the edges of the divider plates.
i am hoping that who ever assembled the transmission got all the snap rings installed on the main shaft. i kept getting back a shop built saginaw 3 speed... the trans would self destruct and do similar not want to shift issues. one of the snap rings had been left out.
i did not have a shifter when i put the M20 in my 66 GTO decades ago.. i had the shift rods. so i had a machines shop mill some aluminum bar stock thinner and i bent it in a vice and made my own shifter.. see attachment.
i relied a lot on the crossed lever lockouts on the inside of the side cover. but the neat part was i could leave it in a forward gear and push the reverse lever and jam the transmission in forward and reverse at the same time.. locking the input and output shafts.. i could park it on a steep hill and never worry about anything except getting it back to neutral. i which i had put a box around the pivot bolt to support it.. i kept breaking it.. or if i had used something like a japanese engines piston pin as a pivot pin so i could have put the bolt in tension not shear.. see attachment of the drawing.. somebody begged me for that shifter long after the car was gone.. so i gave it to them. when later i ask about it.. oh.. i scrapped it.. alumimum is worth a buck a pound.. he was really lucky to be standing several feet too far to punch.
Attachments
I had a similar shifting issue in my first '65 GTO 4-spd, found the shifter mount was pivoting to the rear slightly on a hard 1 - 2 or 2 - 3 shift, took it to the dealer under warranty, he found the problem. A couple of star washers and more torque fixed it.
Moving this from the Introductions to the Transmission forum.
Moving this from the Introductions to the Transmission forum.
Glad you got it sorted out! We've noticed that the Hurst linkage rods aren't as robust as they used to be, and often times need a little bending to clean things up (occasionally the 1-2 and the 3-4 rod will foul each other up). If this is the case for someone else than the OP; PLEASE bend the rod COLD and go very very easy.
Other things that can get you in trouble:
*A real stiff rubber boot can get folded up on itself and either block you out (usually 2nd and 4th) or push it back out of gear.
*Improperly adjusted shifter stops not allowing full engagement of the gear.
*Even loose carpet or floormats can move around and get hung up in the mechanism
For these reasons; for the initial installation, we recommend backing the shifter stops off a fair bit and either omitting the boot or leaving it loose for a quick drive around the block through all 4 gears. That way you are removing a lot of the variables.
Other things that can get you in trouble:
*A real stiff rubber boot can get folded up on itself and either block you out (usually 2nd and 4th) or push it back out of gear.
*Improperly adjusted shifter stops not allowing full engagement of the gear.
*Even loose carpet or floormats can move around and get hung up in the mechanism
For these reasons; for the initial installation, we recommend backing the shifter stops off a fair bit and either omitting the boot or leaving it loose for a quick drive around the block through all 4 gears. That way you are removing a lot of the variables.
Just one comment to add, and I'm not the expert. I usually align the levers with a pin through the holes like you're supposed to but then scissor the 1-2 and 3-4 plates just slightly so that the gate has just a little offset to it to favor diagonal motion between 2 and 3. Seems to help normal operation a little, of course in the odd event you are going between first and fourth or back it takes an extra wiggle.
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