Hi everybody!

Alright, first the good news. I recently purchased a 1988 F-150 with the 302 and 5 speed manual. I am pretty happy with it with the exception of one thing...

The bad news. Today as I was creeping along in traffic I put the shifter in second gear, eased the clutch out and the motor just revved. I put it in first and pulled into a parking lot. I managed to get first and second gear to work once more, then shifted into third. I then tried to downshift back into second and first and neither gear works anymore. Also the shifter seems like it will move up past where first should be and down below where second should be. I called a local transmission repair shop and he said it sounded like a broken shift fork? Do you guys agree with that? Also, I am planning on taking it into the shop, the man on the phone said it could cost up to $500 to repair. Does that sound appropriate?

Thanks for any help!
Justin

 

check the shifter rod to where it attaches to the shifter itself

 

mine did the EXACT same thing and it was the shifter/ range fork in the t-case. i paid 80 bucks for my parts and had it in and out in two hours. i looked up borgwarner parts. ordered them from some place in NY

 

Diagnosis sounds about right, broken shift fork or the shifter came loose.

Do you still have 3rd and 4th, 5th and reverse but no 1st and 2nd? if so then ya I'd have to go with the 1st 2nd fork broke.

Don't know about the 500 bucks part though, sounds a tad on the steep side to me. The shifter forks should be able to be serviced from the top easy enough without dropping the trans.
Pull the carpet back and you'll find a removable pan in the floor over the trans to work through. Pull the top cover off and see what it looks like.
Depending on how bad the fork/s broke it may need dropped to remove the pieces of them. Probably just the small tips of the fork, worn way down until the last little piece couldn't hang on anymore and snapped off. They'd probably just lay in the bottom and not hurt anything but leaving them there, depending on size, might be a gamble.

 

Thanks for the posts guys. Third, fourth, fifth, reverse work so the more I am reading the more it does seem like a shift fork. I will probably still take it into the shop, because I am not very good at repairing these types of things.B ut now I am a little better informed. I will make a point of asking if they can fix it without dropping the tranny so that they know I'm not clueless and hopefully don't try to overcharge me.

 

Okay, aside from a little clutch wear from starting in third, am I risking further damage by driving this truck out to the tranny shop?

 

Other then the clutch? No, just try not to come to a complete stop on the way if you can at all help it.

 

id say do it yourself if you can get to the shift tower through the floor its a 2hr job max why pay a tranny guy to rip it out when theres no need to cause i bet he would...its a REALLY easy install the shift fork go for 60-90 CAD new (depends which fork it is) but id grab em out of a junkyard thats what i did 25 bucks for the whole tower brought everything but the 1 fork back the next day and got some back

 

pull the boot and take a look see just to rule out where the rod connects to the shifter mine was doing that also and i thought my tranny was toast and i pulled it apart and the pin was in there funny and it had a little slop.