shift lever pin

[fred deagostino]

Well, I have another question for you all. I have to replace the pin at the base of my gear shift lever before someone gets their eye poked out. The problem is I haven't seen that item listed anywhere. Does anyone know where one of those little devils may be found?

I also can't quite make out just how they are removed and replaced. I see the base end sticking out from the tower but nothing coming out the other side. This is a '37 stick trans. from a 6 cyl. sedan.

I just drove my car today for the first time and discovered that first gear position puts the stick inside the rim of the steering wheel so, yeah, it's a bit of an issue :-)

As always, all help/direction is greatly appreciated, and, thanks in advance!

[Owen_Dyneto]

Fred, I can relate to this on a senior Packard transmission, and perhaps some of this will help you by translating to the junior trans. The cane shift lever has a ball near the base, with a horizontal hole drilled left to right. Thru this hole is pressed a steel pin with flats on each side that rest in grooves in the tower. The cane is held into it's socket by a conical spring under the retaining collar. Under the left leg of the pin is a small spring which exerts an upward pressure on the left side of the pin, thus keeping the cane, at rest, on the right side of the "H" pattern. If yours is at all similar, just buy a length of steel drill rod the correct diameter, and shape a new pin. This is a very simple repair in the big senior transmission and hopefully yours will be just as easy after you examine it more detail. Hope this has been helpful.

[fred deagostino]

Owen, thanks very much, that is helpful. It's about what I'd guessed might be going on in there, although I was having nightmares of the pin being a tapered affair or some other such special deal. Tell me, does this need to be done with the top cover off the tranny, or can it be accomplished without springs and retaining collar falling down into the trans?

[Owen_Dyneto]

Fred, as I said my experience is only with the senior transmissions and they are vastly different affairs. In the senior, yes you can service the cane socket and pin without removing the top cover, but I can't assure you the little junior transmission is similar. However I do have a friend with a 36 120 who has been thru his transmission; he's away for the next 2 days but when he returns I'll get the details from him and post them here. Or, you can just get a little adventuresome and .......

[fred deagostino]

Well, I think I'll just wait it out 'till you check with your friend. I have other things to do on the car in the meantime, besides, in my experience it seldom pays to go trying to re-invent someone else's wheel. If I were to get rambunctious, knock out the pin, and hear some parts falling down thru the transmission I'd have to go stand in front of the mirror and ream myself for being so damn inpatient. :-)

Nah, I think I'll wait this one out........thanks again.

sincerely,

The Coward

[Owen_Dyneto]

Spoke with my friend with the 36 120 tonight. Unlike the senior transmissions, he says you have to servic the cane socket and pin from inside, i.e., remove the top cover.

[fred deagostino]

Thanks Owen, I started to suspect that might be the case just today while staring down the shift tower, and realized the pin on mine did not go all the way thru both sides the way you'd described the senior. Oh well, it's not the end of the world, but in my perfect world I tapped out the broken pin without anything falling down inside, and then someone handed me a NOS pin which I just tapped right back in there. 'Nice to dream, no? Many thanks..............