Broke the doggone shifter

[jkeady]

My '70 C/20 has a TH350 and I've noticed the shift action has been a lot tougher lately. Not moving through the gear range, that's fine, but pulling back the shifter to move between gears has been getting harder. The last time I drove the truck, it was very difficult, and then today... well, something broke.

I yanked back on the shifter, and at the point where I was putting a lot of stress on it, something gave way in the column, and the shift lever just swung all the way forward and hit the steering wheel. Now it just swings free and obviously it's no longer attached to anything in the column.

Tomorrow (Sunday) morning I'm going to go out and pull the steering wheel and see what I can see in there, but before I do: why was it getting so hard to pull back on the shift lever? I've eyeballed the steering column and shift linkage a few times but can't see exactly what is happening when you pull back on the lever.

Someone care to explain how the whole shebang works? The lockout that keeps the shifter from moving unless pulled back: is that all in the column? Easily accessed?

Thanks in advance folks,

Josh