hey there guys! Recently acquired a 3 on the tree 78 f150 custom with a 302. Had to replace the motor mounts, they were shot, and in replacing them i found tge driver side mount completely gone, and the engine was actually resting on and bending the shift linkages, i have fixed that issue, and now every so often i have a tough time getting her into reverse or 1st, if i give the engine a little rev it shifts the truck and slides right into gear, and if im in first, and hit a big bump itll pop out, is there a,way to adjust these linkages? Theres alot of play, and it feels like it is just engaging gear when it bottoms out on the column. I think the body mounts are also totally shot . Any suggestions on hownto tighten up the shifter?

 

Yes you can adjust them. The two linkage rods are adjustable where they attach to the two 'fork levers' which stick out of the driver side of the transmission.

Figure out which fork lever is Reverse and 1st, and then adjust that one so that the shifter engages both of those gears without bottoming out on the column.
Next you want to adjust the 2nd-3rd fork lever so that it selects both of its gears without bottoming out.

Thirdly comes the most important part: Making sure that the shifter mechanism/assembly is 'synchronized' with regard to the R-1 gate and 2-3 gate.
The way to tell is to look at the tabs which come out of the bottom of your steering column. When the transmission is in neutral, those tabs need to be in near perfect alignment, or the shifter will jam and hang up, maybe allowing you to access the two gears in whichever gate it's stuck in.
And to take that a little farther, you may well need to try going into neutral from all four gears, and check to make sure that the 'column tabs' line up each time.
That takes care of the column side of things.

However there is one other way for the whole shebang to jam up from the transmission side: If one of the 'fork levers' is not all the way into its neutral position, then the other fork lever will be locked into its neutral, unable to move.

There is a video on the youtube of a guy explaining some of this, but he's using a square body Chev for his prop.

Hopefully you have a nicely wide open and not-heavily-traveled place to work on it, because it will likely take at least a few trials and errors.

I suppose it's also possible that the engine mount thing caused the column tabs, or the linkage rods, or the 'fork levers' to bend, causing it to be unable to be adjusted into a working state, but I doubt it. I think you can get it set up.

The four most important parts are #1 making sure that the column gates/tabs are in agreement on where neutral is, #2 also that the transmission forks agree on where neutral is, #3 that each gear is fully selected/engaged inside the trans, and #4 that the shifter can select all four gears without bottoming out.

 

Upper pic: 3 M/T Steering Column / Lower Pic: 3 M/T Gearshift Mechanism

 

Thank you guys, ill be trying that tomorrow when i have a hand to help me. Ive got a stretch of road that the shop is on i can test it on. Will those forks on the column be visible at the bottom of the column in the cab, by the pedals, or under the hood where the steering goes into the engine bay?

 

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why thank you .