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Posted By: SDMickey 3 On the Tree Lost 2nd 3rd & Reverse - February 10th 2021 5:48 pm
The Worst ! On way to talk to motor rebuild man and lost 2nd; 3rd & Reverse with my 3 On the Tree 74' G10.

It started acting up about two weeks ago and last night did a 20 mile drive and it was going into gear after many challenges. I believe it's the linkage ; not grinding like a synchro and the column shift is all over the map.

My challenge is that my 700R Trans guy wants the motor done First and I wanted break in time with motor before I did the 700R Trans.

The Worst.
Posted By: Charlie 99909 Re: 3 On the Tree Lost 2nd 3rd & Reverse - February 10th 2021 5:56 pm
Time to climb under and start messing with the linkage. My old '65 Barracuda was three on the tree and the linkage was always sloppy, even with the hard to find bushings installed.
Posted By: kursed Re: 3 On the Tree Lost 2nd 3rd & Reverse - February 10th 2021 6:03 pm
+1 on the linkages. They tend to have issues when they've sat for a long time and haven't been lubed right. 67-72 Chevy trucks have a common issue where they will lock up between 2nd and 3rd. They are a simple fix by simply loosening two bolts on a collar on the steering column and adjusting, then lubing properly. Takes about 5 minutes to fix it properly, but most folks would rather spend the extra money and time installing a floor shifter it seems than researching and fixing it the right way, LOL.

Crawl up under there and see what's going on. I love a 3 on the tree! If it were mine personally I'd be rocking that old Saginaw 'til she gave out for good. I've owned about 15 of the 67-72 trucks over my life and most of them had that 3OTT setup. 5 minutes of adjustment and they rock.
Posted By: SDMickey Re: 3 On the Tree Lost 2nd 3rd & Reverse - February 10th 2021 6:08 pm
Thanks kursed for the tip BIGTIME and I hope you can get that link to me and as Always Charlie: Thanks for looking out.
Posted By: kursed Re: 3 On the Tree Lost 2nd 3rd & Reverse - February 10th 2021 6:15 pm
Yeah man! Now I don't know if the van 3 speed linkages and column are similar to the trucks, but they should be relatively the same. Here's the guide to adjusting I was talking about. Hopefully this helps. To be honest, I've used this guide, but 99% of the time I didn't even need to use the drill bit alignment trick, I just loosened the bolts on the "sleeve" thingy and adjusted a bunch of slack out by eyeballing the adjustment. Never had any issues afterward.

I had a 71 Cheyenne Super with a 350 and 3OTT that we would flat out dog. Got stuck between 2nd and 3rd one day leaving the big box store. Pulled off on the side of the road, 10 mins later we were ripping down the street stress free thanks to a set of wrenches and some WD40 I kept in the cab. I sold that truck well over 10 years ago. It has went through several owners, and I recently met the current owner who lives a few hours from me. He's still driving the tar out of it and having zero issues.

67-72 Chevy Truck 3OTT Adjustment Trick Linky
Posted By: Meanmachine Re: 3 On the Tree Lost 2nd 3rd & Reverse - February 11th 2021 10:37 pm
The last few years I was having trouble with my 76 Dodge 3-speed on the column shifting and going into gear. Last summer I took the linkage all apart, cleaned all the old grease off of everything, replaced all the bronze bushings and nylon washers on the shifting arms on the column and all the washers on the linkage back at the tranny connections. Works great now. I was surprised to find out the washers on one side of the linkage are called spring washers, they are curved. I thought when I took them off they were just bent that way from years of use. One side of the linkage takes a thin flat washer and the other side takes the spring washer. Everything works great now. For years I have had everything here to convert to automatic, just never got around to doing it. I have had the van for 40 years, and when I was younger the shifting gears was cool, now with all the aches and pains of getting older, I just want to put it in gear and go.
Posted By: kursed Re: 3 On the Tree Lost 2nd 3rd & Reverse - February 12th 2021 2:22 am
Originally Posted by Meanmachine
when I was younger the shifting gears was cool, now with all the aches and pains of getting older, I just want to put it in gear and go.

I agree with wanting an automatic over manual for that aspect. I have lots of issues stemming from my tours overseas, but the severe arthritis in my knees and hips makes me like automatics more and more every year.

Glad to hear you got it all fixed up though. Nothing says half-arsed quite like all the old trucks that have been converted to a floor shift but kept the old column in place. And they could have avoided a lot of that if they jusy took the time to fix the darn things the right way to begin with.
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