Stuck shift lever

[DSpringer]

I'm going to wear out my welcome before I'm done with this restoration...

The shift mechanism on my '41 is apparently rusted in place, so that the shift lever cannot be pulled back to shift into reverse or first. From the disassembly I have done so far it appears that the lever engages in a shaft that slides through the outer tube. <span style="font-weight: bold">Can anyone suggest how to remove the shift lever and/or the lower control arms that connect to the linkage so that I can extract the entire assembly to work on it?</span> There is a wire protruding from the lower end of the shaft with a loop in the end that appears to be part of a spring. Is this typical? The engine will be out soon so I will have the room to pull it forward through the firewall if necessary.

Dave in Winters, CA

[Guest]

Hi Dave, hope you didn't ruin your horn button, they are hard to get anymore, gosh oh golly, I thought turning it to the left was counter-clockwise, this medium isn't always perfect, not clear on your shifter if it will not move at all, or if you just cant get it to pull back so you can shift into low and reverse, if it is totally stuck, you are probally in two gears at once in the transmission, and you will have to remove the shift rods, if you are already beyond that, and still get no movement of the shifter at all, soak it well with WD-40 or an equivalent, shouldn't be that rusted up, if it is wrecked, I have a good steering unit with the shifter in Burbank, let me know if you need it, OC

[DSpringer]

Thanks again, OC. The problem is clearly that the shift shaft is rusted, preventing it from going into 1st & reverse. Tried WD40 but I not sure where to apply it. I may take you up on the shift assembly, but I can't figure out how to remove it. Is there a decent LZ shop manual available? All I have is a National Service Data Manual that covers all cars from '36 to '48, but doesn't have enough detail on the LZ.

The horn button is still in great shape and shined up real nice.

[Guest]

Hi again Springer, that shift assembly comes right off, after you get the steering wheel off, as I recall there is a clip on the end of the shifting mechanism coming through the steering wheel housing on the column. it has a retaining clip, and then there are two bolts fastening it to the bottom of the column, once all these are removed, you can easily remove the shifting mechanism, but hope you are taking in to account that the gear shifter is designed to pull back from the drivers seat, engage a pin that changes to the low-reverse position and therefore works properly, I vaguely remember a problem with that alignment, and it took a little clever adjusting to get it back in synch, please check a little closer before making a horrendous move, old Lincolns are for the most part very forthcoming, my experience anyway, OC

[DSpringer]

Thanks for sticking with me on this, OC. I pulled the retaining clip behind the steering wheel and the two bolts that hold the clamp at the lower end, but it appears that the lower end linkage arms will not fit through the firewall. Also, since I can't remove the shift lever, it won't go through the firewall the other way either. Despite lots of WD40 the shaft is still frozen solid. Let me know if you want to unload your spare. I guess I'll have to cut this one out.

Dave Springer

[DSpringer]

I now know how to remove a shift column. At the bottom end where the shift levers are is a wire loop that hooks over the cap at the end of the column. Unhooking the loop from the cap allows the shift arms to slide off the splined shaft (after unbolting the clamp that secures the shift arm carriage from the steering column). Then the column can be pulled out from the inside of the car after removing the steering wheel and a retainer clip. It's difficult getting past the bell behind the steering wheel though (that houses the turn signal). If anyone knows whether the bell can be removed, let me know. I don't want to mess up the new paint job on the column when I put it back in.

Dave Springer

[Guest]

But you didn't tell us what, if anything is wrong with the shifter, glad you figured it out, I don't recall ever going that deep into one, still am guessing yours is just mis-aligned, not rusted up, let us know, OC

[CBoz]

Dave -

With regard to the service manual, what Ford actually did back then was release updates over several years that were put together into a binder; hence, there was no "1941 Zephyr shop manual" per se.

Faxon Auto Literature puts out a reproduction of these bulletins. I don't have any experience with them one way or the other, but here is a link to the repro manual on ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=34225&item=1875787576

Hope this helps.

[DSpringer]

You're right, O.C., I didn't say what the problem was. When you remove the steering wheel you see a pin with a snap ring holding it in place centered on the shift tube. The pin is actually the end of about a 4" long shaft that sits inside the shift tube. That shaft was solidly rusted to the shift tube in which it is supposed to slide. With copious amounts of WD-40 and rotating the pin by clamping it in a vise, I was able to pry it out and remove the rust.

The shaft segment has a recess in one side that the shift lever rides in. When you pull the shift lever toward you, the shift tube rides up on the shaft. At the lower end of the shift tube is a splined rod that inserts into the tube. When you pull the shift lever the tube allows the spline to move from one shift arm to the other. The spring, which is part of the wire loop that extends from the bottom of the tube, keeps the spline normally engaged in the lower shift arm (3rd and reverse position).

This stuff is challenging, but fun when it works.

Dave <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

[DSpringer]

CBoz,

Thanks for the tip. I went ahead and bought the manual. If it doesn't help with this problem, I'm sure it will come in handy later.

I have an old National Automotive Service Data Manual that includes fairly detailed information on every car sold in the U.S. from 1936 to 1948, but it deals mostly with the drive train. If anybody needs to know the firing order on a 1936 Graham, let me know!

Dave <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

[Keith L.]

On my '41 coupe the wire with the loop and the cap that holds it are loose. In fact, the cap will fall off because the wire has no tension. The car does not move under it's own power...yet. and I'm concerned what I'm in for. Do I need to rebuild that linkage? How big of a job is it? Thanks.

[DSpringer]

The wire loop is one end of a spring that applies tension between the outer shift column tube and the inner shaft that the shift lever engages in. Either the spring is broken, or it has become disengaged from a pin that is welded across the inside of the tube. Try pushing in, turning, and extracting the spring. If it's in one piece you should be able to loop the hook in the end of the spring over the pin by pushing it in as far as you can and rotating it 90 deg. Then pull the loop out through the slot in the end cap and hook the intermediate loop over the tab in the center of the end cap. This is a little hard to explain. It will make more sense once you get the spring out.

[Keith L.]

Springer,

Thanks for the info. I hope I don't have to take the whole linkage apart because a previous owner replaced the V12 with a Cad. engine and I'm real short on working room on the front end of the shaft.