1975 Lightweight Shifting Problems

[zerocanon]

Over the weekend, after a bit of normal on-road driving my friend's 1975 lightweight refused to shift out of first gear.

The clutch engaged and disengaged normally to start moving and stop but the vehicle would not shift from first gear when the clutch was depressed.

Then, after doing some light tugging on the gearshift, we were able to pop it into neutral but now it is completely stuck in neutral. You can hear a change in the sound of the transmission when the clutch is pressed but it doesn't allow the gear to be engaged.

I bled the clutch at the slave cylinder just to be sure there wasn't air in the system but that did not help. Any ideas on what this could be?

[bkreutz]

Kinda sounds like the bottom of the shifter came loose or broke.

[Tim Smith]

If you are lucky it could be the shifting fork came loose from the shifting rod or maybe the shifting rod got fouled up. But it kind of sounds like the detent balls on the reverse slider assembly could have gotten jammed up. Unfortunately that would be a bit more work to fix.

You will probably need to take the tunnel cover off to get a good look. If you don't see anything obvious on the outside of the transmission, you'll need to take the shifting arm and the top of the box off for a better idea. It's not tough to do but don't let those detent springs and balls go shooting off in all directions when you take the top of the gear box off.