818 Transmission issues....

[mhb285]

Was out on El Toro , the old USMC base this AM riding around in Key Largo's 818. We had just replaced a leaking air line & replaced some dry rotten wiring under the dash. So we decided to take a drive around part of the old base. He goes to shift from 1st to 2nd and gets it in 5th instead. Were lugging it. We stop. He gets is into 1st again & starts driving. Problem....
He can't get it out of 1st gear as the shifter just flop's around. It won't engage into any gear. It still in 1st gear. We limp back to his space on base in 1st & park it.....
What did we do? I tried search & didn't find anything related to this problem. Any suggestions?
Thanks
Mike

 

[topo]

It may be that the bottom of the shift lever has poped out of the shift rails .you will need to take the shift tower off use a screw driver and get first gear back to neutral and set the tower back on with the end of the stick in the rails some times when this happens when the shift pattern is not as up and down as should be .

 

[key-largo]

mhb285 and I will try that this weekend. Thank you for your response.

 

[73m819]

You can pull the stick without pulling the trans top, the 3/4" bolt on the REAR of the tower not the side is for securing the stick, take the trans floor hump off, this will make it easier to get the tower boot back on, also some grease on the lower lip of the boot won't hurt. (the boot will come off with the stick)

 

[Sephirothq]

YOu need a 7/8" wrench to get that bolt out

 

[73m819]

YOu need a 7/8" wrench to get that bolt out

Yep, 7/8 sorry about that

 

[mhb285]

Well that 7/8" bolt had backed out far enough to cause everything to disengaged..... How do you exactly get it out of 1st gear?.....

 

[R Racing]

I haven't been thru this. But a guess would be tighten the bolt back up and see if it does shift into neutral ?

 

[mhb285]

Did that... No thought we got neutral, but wasn't....

 

[R Racing]

Then maybe it's time to pull the top cover.

 

[73m819]

Look down the tower, you WILL see THREE sets of shifting gates, use a LONG 3/8" rod, align the gates so there is a slot all the way across the tower with three gates on one side and three gates on the other, this should put the trans in natural.