Hello all,
I have a 71 F100 sport custom, 360 with 4 speed manual/granny gear. The truck had been setting up for several years and not driven too much. Now that it is up and running it seems difficult to shift. I can get it in gear fine but it takes a lot of force to get it there...much more difficult than I think necessary. It doesn't slip out of gear and runs great- no problems with speed/acceleration and all that. Could it be that something needs to be lubricated? The truck is dry all around and I am greasing and oiling parts that I never even gave a second thought too before. What are you guys thoughts?

 

I would look at clutch adjustment first. If it is not disengaging far enough, it will then take alot of effort to push thru the blocker rings(in tranny) to get into gear. When you go to pull it out, does the shifter handle move easily? If so, then it's more like NOT the tranny. If it's hard to pull out of gear also, then I would look at tranny.

Where's the clutch pedal adjusted?? Is there only 1" or so or freeplay at top(before you feel resistance). If it goes near half way before you feel anything, then it needs adjusted up a bit. This will help with shifting.

Just some ideas to look at.

 

Thanks for the advice. Now that you mention it, it is pretty easy to move out of gear.It seems that the hardest part is going into 2nd when I first start and that going into 3rd and 4th is pretty easy. Also, reverse is somewhat hard and then the truck "shudders" a bit when it moves in reverse.

I will look at the clutch adjustment and see if that helps...I guess there is nothing that I need to lubricate up at this point. Thanks a lot for the advice.

 

Well, sounds like that is the problem. A trick to help get in 2nd from a stop. Click shifter into 4th, the quickly move it back to 2nd. It should drop in easily. The thing is, getting it into 4th is easy on the gears, it stops everything from turning which in turn lets it drop into 2nd easy. The same with reverse. The deeper the gear(1,2) the harder it is to get into gear if the clutch is not disengaging enough.

Try the trick I mentioned..you'll see a difference.

 

You may have the same problem that i had in my 70'. It would shift extremely hard into 2nd. some times it shifted hard into 1st, and reverse but 3rd & 4th never bothered The problem was the actual shifter lever that you shift the gears with it was wallowed out on the end where the lever was in the tranny and actually shifted gears. All you need to do is take the shifter boot off , and take the cover plate off and unhook the shifter and remove it you will know right away if it is bad. After i replaced mine it was like new, I found a replace ment in excellant shape from a bone yard.

 

Huh. That sounds like something to look at also. How do I get the rubber boot off and look at it from above? I tried pulling it up but it seems fixed into place pretty well.

 

all may be different! mine the boot was just screwed to the floor but my pickup had a 3 on the tree when my dad bought it back when. Later he needed more pulling power since it was his farm work truck and had the 4 on the floor put in that is all i know but i would think if it is not screwd down, then it could have a double edge that would be like a fire wall gromet is and just pops in and holds it self.

 

You might as well pull that drain plug on the right side of tranny and drain that old stuff out of there too. A lot of guys use the synthetic gear oil in there instead of what my book says to use. (50 wt motor oil). Seems like mine shifts easier with it. I would have to think that wear would be less of a prob with the syn's. Gotta be better than oil. I think my 4speed with granny calls for about 4 1/2 pints which just about puts the level at the bottom of hole on filler plug. (Both drain and filler plug are the square head plugs on right side). i also use that in the transfer case.

 

Funny, I was thinking about changing the fluid in my transmission too and was wondering what to put in there. Synthetic gear oil? Maybe I'll try that.
How often do you change the transmission fluid and how often do you change the fluid in the transfer case? (mine is a 4 speed manual with granny too)

 

My 72 is the same way until warmed up. Hard to pull into 2nd, but all other shifts are easy. Once warmed up, shifting into 2nd is fine.

Maybe I'll change the fluid in the tranny and transfer case with synthetic too, can't hurt. What weight synthetic did you use?

Thanks,
Keith