the shifter seems to get hung up in the neutral area when shifting between gears and is really difficult to get into 1st and reverse the gears work fine when i manually shift them under the hood any info would be greatly appreciated

 

Souns like a worn shifter tube, or miss adjusted linkage.
To set linkage slide a drill bit up the collum under the hood were you've been moven them. You'll see a little hoop welded to the collum and two holes in the forks this will hold the collum forks inline next pull the linkage at the trany arms (BLOCK WHEELS FIRST!! BOTH SIDES)Next move trany linkage forward and back to center let it Snap to center the nub of the linkage should slide in to the arm with out moven it if not adjust (NOTE: ruber bushings dry out and are cheap to replace) repeat with other arm.

Best of luck.

44Dwarf

To fix the tube you have to braze the hole were the shifter goes in ans resize. Not an easy job. Tubes are availible new.

 

the linkage seems to be ok does a bad tube feel like if it had a so called H pattern that you were getting hung up in it or that the h was bent not letting u shifting into that gear

 

Fred, Most guys that haven't learned to deal with the cantankerous old shifters try to push the shifting arm from first to second, or try to speed shift. One way around this is to pull slightly towards the steering wheel when coming out of low. letting the arm fall completely down and then go to second. This should help until you can replace the worn rubber parts.
http://www.clubfte.com/users/jowilker/USFlag.gif
John

jowilker email me
[link:www.ford-trucks.com/users/jowilker|My Club FTE Page] Member since 01 01

[link:www.ford-trucks.net/users/jowilker/NCFTE.html|NCFTO] North Carolina Ford Truck Owners Group

In the cool still quiet of night, you can hear chevies rusting away.

 

Yes these old trucks even with new collums need to be shifted like an "H" not a "Y". Best if you pull it toward you lightly when going from 1st then up to neutral then push toward the front bumper and up again.
The hole for the shift handles ball end in the tube gets worn and the end down at the shift forks gets a little rounded.

This link will take you to a blow up of a collum. IT IS NOT 100% the same but all the parts are are look a likes, as this is for a bronco but it's the best pict i know of on the web. Some parts are the same others like the tube i think are to short for trucks.


Best of luck.

44Dwarf

 

Well said about the H pattern! Another trick that can help is to double-clutch. Double clutching will help nudge the shift yokes into postition when acting balky.

 

Hi. I have a 63 F100 and just went through all of this. No parts are made to rebuild the column shifter inside the steering column. I purchased a Hurst Indy Floor shifter from Jegs for about 75 dollars. Took me several evenings to install it. Truck shifts fine now and is not cantankerous. One thing to remember is that at least in the 63 truck this was the first year truck with a syncromesh trans and it was in gears 2 and 3. To shift into reverse it is best to bring truck to a stop and shift into 1st before shifting into reverse.
Andy63...

 

Andy is correct, and I'll add that 1st is not synched either in most 3 speeds. You need to double clutch or come to a complete stop to downshift into 1st.

 

I took the after market floor shifter out of my 65 and rebuilt the column, adjusting the linkages per the shop manual, several months ago. Everything felt nice and tight, with a smooth transfer from one linkage to the next at the neutral position. However, I still had a couple of jams soon after when trying to go from 3rd to 1st. Fixed this by getting in the habit of going through 2nd. Haven't had a single jam going from 3rd to 2nd then 1st when stopping (or almost). Having the original column shifter is quite a novelty for a lot of folks who ride in ol' red. But, you just can't get in a hurry shifting.

Mike Swatek
Claremore, OK
58 & 65 F-100 Styleside Custom Cabs
http://www.swatek.com/truck.htm