47-55.1 Turbo 350 kicking into N

[Kevin Mac]

Took Fireball for a ride today and you know you have to give it a little boost every now and then, well when I did it kicked into N. Don't remember that happening before, what might cause that or what keeps in gear? I also dropped it in low and hammered a little and it kicked into 2nd. Not a transmission guy so looking for advice. Thanks
Mac

[dsraven]

check shift linkage, it may be rigid and when the engine torques up it moves enough to shift it into another gear. a cable operated set up may be in your future or possibly some new engine mounts?

[mr48chev]

The great thing about Dsraven seeing a question first is I don't have to come up with an answer for it. That is pretty well exactly what I would have said.

Check the motor mounts as the engine is probably lifting up a bit too much when you get on it pulling it out of gear.

Simple way is to get someone who knows what they are doing to power brake it while you stand BESIDE the fender and watch to see if or how much the left side of the engine lifts when they put a bit of power to it. Best done outside with nothing in front of the truck.

[dsraven]

haha, thanks mr48,
some of us old hotrodders may remember the engine mounts with chain from the engine to the frame. this was to stop the engine from spinning around in the engine bay when the engine mounts broke free from high hp engines or lack of preventative maintenance/checks. it ain't pretty when the engine mounts break apart under power like when doing a good burn out.
have a buddy do a "brake stand" while you check your engine mounts/movement to see how much things are moving and how the shift linkage is affected. do one in reverse as well. also keep in mind the the other stuff affected by engine movement, like fuel lines, electrical harness, throttle linkage, rad and heater hoses,fan shroud clearances, etc.

[mr48chev]

I had to fix the results of a broke motor mount on a 63/64 327 Impala one time back in the 70's
Guy bought it from someone in Central Texas when I was living there and gave it a quick tune up and went out and tried to do a big burn out and the motor lifted up, the throttle stuck and the fan ate the shroud and a few other things before he got it shut off. They towed it to the shop where I worked on a chain to have it fixed.

I had the same thrill on my 62 283 Impala with less damaging results and just drove to the parts house and bought new motor mounts (all three) and replaced them. That car didn't have enough power to do a burn out though.

[Kevin Mac]

Thanks guys,I will check that out. Funny thing while I was out a lady came up beside me on passenger side wanting me to roll down the window. I gave her the manual window crank symbol(circular motion of the hand). She wanted me to pull over so I did. She said when I went around the last corner she seen a bolt or something come out from under the truck. I gave a quick look of the 4 link as that was the last thing I worked on but it looked ok. Went back to intersection, parked truck and looked around but didn't find anything. Maybe it was a motor mount bolt. I will give that a looksy.

[Kevin Mac]

Thanks for the advice, I have been under the truck a lot latley installing hydroboost and I keep looking at the left motor mount thinking it looks bad. Well today while I had the power steering pump out I lifted the motor and sure enoutgh the mount is bad. Now I will have to try and figure out what mount to get. It is always hard to go to the parts store and get parts when you are not sure what year/ motor or whatever it was from.
Thanks again, Mac

[mr48chev]

Take the old one to the store or post photos of it and we jointly can try to figure it out.

Most of the ones that Chevy guys have trouble with coming apart are like this. Gotta cheat lunch is ready https://www.ebay.com/itm/Fits-1961-1...ke%3AChevrolet Those don't have the safety piece that keeps them from pulling apart and were used on Chevy cars and then trucks from 58 up into the 70's when they started using the one that had the safety catch on it. This style has the piece on it that keeps the engine from lifting up if the rubber separates. https://www.ebay.com/itm/172412141954

[Kevin Mac]

Mr 48 you are GOOD. I have found one and put it on last night. It was the first one you linked too. It had numbers in the rubber that was a good number. Now I found out that my combo/prop valve on my brakes is plumbed wrong. The PO had the "rear brake in" in the out port. Maybe that's why my brakes didn't work very well. It will now have hydroboost and the prob valve piped right. It never ends even with a "done" truck, but I do enjoy working on it.
Mac

[mr48chev]

Sounds like you accomplished a lot in short order.