Saginaw 3 on the tree problem

[blukangoo]

Hi there people with the older trucks.

I have a friend in Belgium that has a 64 GMC with a Saginaw 3 Speed.
He wrote to me in German so I am going to try and translate his problem as best as I can.
Sure hope somebody has a good answer. Thanks!

First he said it always jumps out of 3rd when he hits the gas or goes uphill.

The other is he sais when he is shifting from 1st to 2nd he sais it gets stuck between the 2 gears. After he shakes the crap out of the shifter he can go ahead and shift. He sais the worst thing is, is when it happens at a light.

Here is what it looks like:

[Tim64]

Nice looking truck. I had the same problem with my 63'. There are some folks on the board here that can tell you how to rebuild the shifter, but it was easier for me to just put a floor shifter in. It cost about $100.00 bucks, and a couple hours of my time, but the problem was gone for good. I'd say tell your friend to make it easy on himself and go the floor shifter route. They don't make any aftermarket parts for the column shifter, and to fix it right the column has to come out. You have to build the worn out places up with weld, and then file them back down to where they should be. I ask about this before I put my floor shifter in, and one or more members posted some great pics of what had to be done. You might do a search on shifters and see what comes up. Hope this helps. Good luck,
Tim

[kdrodworks316]

sounds to me it could be worn linkage or out of adjustment. my 53 ford coupe had the same problem till I installed a floor shift. tight linkage is important in a three on the tree. very simple and very complicated at the same time. start with that first as it is the easiest tho check and dig deeper from there. hope this helps you out, good luck

[MikeN]

Jumping out of gear is not always a linkage problem. Sometimes it is caused by excessive wear inside the transmission.

[kdrodworks316]

I agree Mike, but linkage is easy to check and rule out

[blukangoo]

Thanks for the quick answers.
I will let him know what you all think and see what he wants to do.
Checking the linkage first was what I was thinking.

I will let you all know what he does though.

[rickf]

It sounds like two separate problems. Teh getting stuck between 1 & 2 is a linkage problem. The change from 1st to 2nd is a change from one control rod to the other. It sounds like the mechanism is not making the transition. First thing to do is just adjust it. I believe there is a FAQ here for that, I know it was covered in a thread some time back. It is pretty simple.

The jumping out of third is probably an indication of plain old worn out. Mine did that at about 120K miles. Got it rebuilt. It's been 130K more miles (and another engine) and it still works.

[66Rick]

My 66 does the same thing from 1st to 2nd. It is worn out. When it gets stuck I have to go under the hood and manually move the parts back in place. Once I figured out what is going on I just shifted carefully making sure I pull the shift lever towards me a little when going out of first then push a little back when going into 2nd. That is on my list to fix during the restore. My wife won't drive it until it is fixed.

As for it coming out of 3rd, it is possible the worn linkage is pulling it out of gear when you hit the gas and the motor and transmission rock a little pulling on the linkage. Not as likely as it being a transmission issue, but worth looking into.

[thekid54]

The sticking between gears is deffinitely a linkage problem. Mine used to do that until I replaced all the rubber bushings on the ends of the linkage rods.

As for popping out of gear, I have the same exact problem on my '62! It pops out of third whenever I accelerate hard or I'm going up hill. The detents(small craters that a ball drops into to hold it in gear) inside the side cover are probably worn out. Try swapping it for one that's in better shape.

[blukangoo]

I just got this picture back from him and he sais that the "S" shaped piece in the middle always gets stuck on both rods.
Is it good to have everything all greased up like that?

Correction: It´s not the "S" shaped part but the rod to the right of it.