Just got home form picking up a couch with the truck. About ten miles from home, it is stuck in third gear......

Any advise as to where I should start to look?

I'm going down to get a Chilton/Haynes tomorrow. 1978 Ford F100 Inline 6 with three on the tree, is that helps.

It was shifting fine, then all the sudden can't get it out of third. Had that great clutch smell when I got it home.

Grrr

 

How are the cab mounts?

 

Not sure, I will have to look in the morning.

I am new to this working on my own vehicle thing. I have always owned newer cars and never had to do more than change the brakes or an alternator.

I'm learning.

I need to get a manual so I know what I am looking at.

 

Make sure the shifter is in neutral then get under the truck and check that both the R-1 & 2-3 shift arms on the trans are in neutral too. If they aren't, manually shift them into neutral.

 

The reason I ask is cause I had one these trucks years ago and the cab mounts where rusted out so bad the cab sagged and it would not shift very good. Hopefully that not your problem.

 

I can't get the shifter on the column out of third. It has a lot of play in it, but can't move it out of the third area.

 

Column shifts = too many moving parts that wear out.

Open the hood or crawl underneath the rig (safely) to see if the column-shift linkages can be un-stuck.

 

With a flash light I just went out and look under the hood. The rubber spacers look to be fine, in the morning I will crawl under it and see if I can move it by hand.

At the base of the column in the engine compartment, which rod is the 1st reverse and which rod is the 2nd 3rd? Closest to the firewall?

Thanks for all the help so far, ya'll have much more knowledge than I have and it is nice to have a site that is willing to help a newbie...Thanks!

 

My 71 would do this to me. Had to learn not to skip from third to first. Always went all the way up to second, down to nuetral, pulled towards me and into first. If it got stuck I had to pop the hood and pull up on the two shifter rods to get it to go back into nuetral. Good alarm system, no one else could drive it.

 

So treat it as it is not synconized?

I will try to pull up on both of them to get into neutral then make sure to not skip gears. I did do that, so maybe that will help.

 

At the bottom of the steering column under the hood are the two manual control selector levers that the shift rods from the trans attach to.

In each lever is a nylon bushing. The bushings crack apart-disintegrate, the shift lever binds up.

EOSZ-7341-B (replaced D5TZ-7341-C - C7SZ-7341-D & C3AZ-7341-A) .. Nylon Bushing / Available from Ford - MSRP each: $4.43

1973/86 F100/250 & Econoline 3 M/T (2) / 1969/91 F100/350 A/T (1) / 1976/91 Econoline A/T (1) // Misc: 1963/80's Passenger Cars.

Bushings are 7341 in parts catalog pic:

 

time to put a np435 on the floor in.

 

How much is that going to hurt the wallet?

 

Did you click on link to amazon....gives pricing.

Maybe you mean how much on labor...

 

I clicked on the link, which is not there now for some reason.

It said $128 dollars, I googled the NP435 and it showed a transmission that is $1690. That will hurt the wallet, was that what you was referring too?

Again I am a newbie to these trucks.

I did get the linkage out of the bind, I need to tighten one bolt on the linkage and it should be good for now. The last owner said they just rebuilt the column guts, but he also installed the radio that when I disconnected to rewire it made my left blinkers work agains, so I'm not really trusting his workmanship at this point in the game.