I just bought this wonderful 64 Econoline Panel and I plan to make it my daily driver. After a few drives around town I get the trans stuck in nuetral while trying to shift from 2nd into 1st. I have to get out of the van and manhandle the linkage under the grill to get it unstuck. Im having no luck at all finding parts at my local auto parts suppliers or online. I cant even find a repair manual on how to take it apart. I imagin it must be a common problem so I hope that someone here who has had the same problem would know a fix? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

What exactly do you need? I have a couple repair manuals that I bought off of ebay. There is a group on yahoo named Oldeconolines (oldeconolines at yahoogroups com) that is just for the first generation vans and has alot of information.

brian

 

Im guessing I need the shift arms at the bottom of the collumn, right under the grill. They have a lot of slop to them, almost a inch of shifter movement before they actually start moving.

 

the column is real simple to work on. very few parts to go bad realy.
let me know where you are and i will see if i know anyone close that can give you a hand.

 

I found a lot of slop (up and down) that allowed the pin in the column shaft to actually go between the shift lever arms. I think I am going to try to find some bushings or washers at the hardware store to put in between the brackets and the shift lever arms. Also the pin itself had a lot of slop in the collumn, but im not to concerned with that, because I dont know what I could do to fix that but replace it and the collumn.


Also this

Crack in the frame. yikes! What should I do?

 

was the steering box loose? about all you can do is weld it up, and mabey add a little bit of a plate on top of it. not uncommon for the frames to crack a little on econos. not like they are made out of heavey material.

look for nylon washers you can use as spacers, that and when you take it apart stretch the spings.

 

Your shift tube looks pretty good. The levers must be worn. As Jimbare says put in nylon bushings. As you can see you have a grease nipple there. Remember to grease these afterwards yearly. This where people never notice the nipples and they tend to not grease the shifter levers. Thus the wear on them.
The crack in the frame all you can do is weld it. Make sure the weld is deep through the crack. Grind down again and repaint the area.
My Econo truck the frame has places where rust has come through. So part of my restoration of the truck is going to replace and patch those areas with new metal.
Areas the frame rust are at the front spring mounts, support bracket located behind the front wheels. Those brackets tend to rust out. Usually you can find one on a wreck that maybe good to cut out and weld in as areplacement.
Not much available for replacement metal on our trucks.
Good luck with the shifter aftrwards.

 

I found some bronze washers and put them in above and below the shift arms. After driving it around all day Ive got to say I am very happy with how it turned out. I couldnt find any parts to actually replace anything, but this temporary fix will have to do. Now I just gotta fix the brakes, steering, interior, door locks, axle leak, etc, etc......haha, good thing I enjoy this stuff.

 

Oh and a big thanks to all who helped me on this, It made it alot easier for me.

 

Anytime. I own a 64 truck and 2 67 econo trucks. So tearing them apart years ago was where I learned this stuff. I also have 2 manuals one for 61 and the other for 65.
My trucks need to be restored and I hope later this year or at least next year to finally start on my 64.
There are a few others here with multiple econo trucks and vans. Oh I have to vans that are donors here also. The one is nearly rust free, had an accident the bent the frame up Cost more to repair the frame so sheet metal donor it will be.