55.2-59 Finding neutral

[popeyestruck]

Put my motor and trans back in the chassis last night . This morning I hooked up the driveline and the transmission is in gear. Right now its a rolling chassis that wont roll. I connected the clutch arm. I press the clutch and can move it around but I'd rather have it in neutral. How do I find neutral with no linkage connected? I figure there must be an easy way but I dont know it. I have the cab mounted and I'm doing all the underneath work before I get ready for paint. Stock 3 on the tree transmission. Thanks in advance

[nvrdone]

OK, what kind of trans - 3 spd, 4 spd, etc?
ON my m21 4 speed its real easy
If you have shift arms that bolt on the trans, install all of them. Then jack up the rear wheels. On my 4 speed I can move each arm 3 clicks. 1 forward,1 nutral & 1 back. Do this on the front 2 arms. the rear arm is just reverse - 1 click each way. Each time you move an arm, see if the drive shaft turns.
I know this is probably as clear as mud, put play with it. you will get it to work

[nvrdone]

sorry - didnt see its a 3 speed, so you should only have 2 arms. Still, moving the arms should work.

[leegreen]

2 arms, one is 1st and Rev with neutral in between, other is 2nd and 3rd with neutral in between. put both in neutral and it should roll

[dsraven]

do like LG says but block the wheels before you go under to do that.

[popeyestruck]

Originally Posted by leegreen

2 arms, one is 1st and Rev with neutral in between, other is 2nd and 3rd with neutral in between. put both in neutral and it should roll

OK that makes sense

[leegreen]

if it does not work then there is either something broken or someone had the side cover off and did not align the shift arms and the gears, in which case one of the levers wont move much. Pop the side cover off and have a look. It is straight forward.

[mr48chev]

If it doesn't click out of gear into neutral you may gave the back tires off the floor to relieve pressure on the gear.

Note on;y one lever should move without both being in neutral. if the first one won't go either way try the other one.

[dsraven]

if the levers on the outside don't wanna move, first try putting the truck in a position so that there is no strain on the gears inside the trans. like roll the truck back and forth a little and then block the wheels so it is roughly in the middle of that fore to aft movement. this takes the strain off the gears inside so you can shift them. you can check if the stress is off by trying to turn the driveshaft it you have an open driveline. it would have a little slop and not be held tightly. you could also push the clutch arm while trying to shift as this should also relieve the strain on the gears and allow a shift to be easier but that could be a two man operation. Iusually use a set of groove joint pliers for a little extra leverage on the shift levers so I don't skip past neutral into the next gear so easily. don't force the operation though as this can chip the edges of the synchro gear teeth

[popeyestruck]

I got it. Thanks

[dsraven]

great, back in business.
ii have some little car dollies that I use but they can be a royal pain when trying to move by yourself. way better if the vehicle can be pushed.

[dsraven]

what does your project look like these days? got any current pics?

[leegreen]

off topic, but a set of those car dollies with typical steel casters was one of my most disappointing tool purchases ever. even on concrete garage floor, getting 8 casters to change direction was brutal and often involved individually lining up each caster with desired direction of travel.

They have been more useful to move transmissions and differentials around, I'm more likely to reach for floor jack if I have to shift a car sideways.

[dsraven]

yeah me too LG. I find the metal they use bends under the weight of the truck so i welded on some steel and they work a lot better. still frustrating though.

[popeyestruck]

[popeyestruck]

Hooked up the driveline ,foot starter , clutch and was about to hook up the exhaust but they sent the wrong pipe that connects to the manifold. They sent one that uses a gasket but I need a donut. I have an email into the company and am waiting to here if they have the correct pipe. Their ad said fits my truck

[dsraven]

before and after pics look great. nice job.
if the pipe doesn't fit and they dont get back to you it can be cut off at the tip and a new short length of the correct style can be installed and welded or band clamped on or maybe a short length can be simply slid inside the new part t accept a donut, depends if it's a falt style gasket or somethung different. can't recall seeing a gasket style but I have done repairs on newer style trucks with the donut that had a sleeve inside the pipe to stop the donut from simply crushing into itself. still, it would be good if the supplier came good for the correct pipe. no shipping fee for return hopefully.

[dsraven]

have you looked at the column shifter box and linkage yet or are you going with a floor shifter? I had a floor shifter on one long ago and didn't like it as it was never very precise about the rev-1st to 2nd third gate. caused a few grinds when I thought i was going to second. plus it is just something in the way on the floor. just my opinion though.

[dsraven]

curious, did you fab your own alt mount? looks good. engine mounts?

[popeyestruck]

Going with the 3 on the tree but adding power steering. Between that and the stomp start its my anti theft. The motor mounts are stock and the alt,ps and compressor are from davis speed equipment. Really well built and over engineered

[leegreen]

3 on the tree rocks!

pay attention to the parts in shift box on column before you put it on the road, unless it has been rebuilt already there is a good chance there is enough slop that it will occasionally fail to entirely shift one transmission leaver to neutral before trying to put the next leaver in gear and you will end up jammed in 2 on the upshift or 3rd on the downshift.

the roadside fix is to hammer the shift leavers on the bottom end of the column back to the neutral position. if you end up stuck in 3rd on a hill, your parking brake is weak and you had no passengers with you this becomes humorous

[popeyestruck]

I went thru it and replaced bushings. It seems to work good

[nvrdone]

ok, so how are you installing power steering with 3 on the tree and a straight axle? I thought p/s would only work with IFS.

[dsraven]

there are p/s boxes that fit in the same location as the original manual box so that the original steering geometry will stay the same and no bump steer that is common with other steering set ups. they are not a solid connection from the column like the original gear boxes were. meaning, the input shaft from the box is very long and has the steering wheel on the other end, no disconnect between the two. to install the p/s box the original colunm needs to be cut off, a bearing installed in the outer tube at the lower end and then the shaft gets a flat spot ground into it to accept a rag joint or u joint. I'm not sure how much room there is left for the column shifter box after that. there is a how to on google that shows the column shortening. there are new boxes sold as well as kits with new boxes and the parts needed. some guys have used a toyota truck steering box also but by now they are getting harder to find that are not already worn out or over priced.
check this link to see a system installed
https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/po...traight-axles/
and a thread on this forum talking about the toyota boxes
https://67-72chevytrucks.com/vboard/...d.php?t=593492
a google search will show lots of options

[dsraven]

just some info for any lurkers here who want to shorten their own column. some have used a flanged bearing, like for a wheel barrow wheel, at the bottom of the newly shortened column tube. the column tubing usually needs to be custom fit with a file to get the new bearing to fit snugly and then some have even tacked a nut or two on the outside of the tube in a couple of spots around the tube so bolts ban be used to bear down on the bearing and keep it from moving. the thing to remember here is that you also need to put a shaft collar on the actual shaft below the new bearing because otherwise the steering shaft can be pulled up as there is nothing holding the shaft down like it used to be when it was part of the old manual steering gear box.