a 833 od shifting issues

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zakimodo

zakimodo

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i have created quit the "crossbread" car. i have a 74 plymouth duster with a78 engine 76 tranny 80 something belhousing and an original hurst shifter from a early 70's a body. i got this all bolted together and working well kinda.
If i adjust all the shift linkages the way i think they should be the car will go into every gear but takes ALOT to thow er in reverse. if i adjust the way my dad likes it it goes into reverse and 1st and 2nd but i have to fight it to get into 3rd and can hardly get it into 4th. Is it just that i am adjusting it wrong or that my shifter has seen better days. Or both?
 
There is a hole in the levers and a notch in the bottom of the shifter body that are used to align everything. Slip a rod in there and line up the levers and adjust the rods to reach from there. Then see if you have an issue
 
That is correct. Then you adjust each rod to slip in to it's appropriate lever. After that, if you feel the need to "smooth up" the 2-3 gate, you can go back and make adjustments one turn at a time. But remember, you go to far and you create problems
 
I just got done adjusting the rods and it shifs alot better than before with no problem hitting every gear. How ever after the tranny gets warmed up i cant get it into 1st and second with out fighting it. What could be causing this. i was thinking mabey oil viscocity. i am running 80-90 in it.
 
zakimodo said:
i have created quit the "crossbread" car. i have a 74 plymouth duster with a78 engine 76 tranny 80 something belhousing and an original hurst shifter from a early 70's a body.
Click to expand...

and since it's a crossbreed as you stated, that may be the problem.

Everytime you make a minor tweak to the linkage to correct something, other things may be out of wack. Is your clutch freeplay adjusted properly? Is the clutch assembly new or is it a crossbreed as well?
 
The clutch is correct to the car and is adjusted correctly. All components are new except the z bar.New bushings were installed in it. What worries me is that when i bout this transmission it was supposedly gone through. Im beginning to wonder if it wasnt
 
Well ive made headway. I filled it with a synthetic oil and away went my 1st and 2nd issues. I still am having problems with it wanting to stick into 2 gears at once. i have played with all the adjustments, and am finding that there is a 2 inch area front to back where the shifter thinks it is neutral but is leaving the shift levers in gear. A new shifter Is on the way as mine was "used to much when it was new". Hopefully this fixes it
 
The OD tranny has a lock out lever arrangement internally that when either 1/2, 3/4 or reverse is selected then the other gears are locked out. So if you are going between gears or selecting two at a time with the shifter handle that is an indication that the shifter is shot.

FWIW, My A833OD suddenly developed a problem shifting into first or reverse a couple of weeks ago. It was worse when hot to the extent that I had to stop the engine, shift into reverse and restart to back the car up. Last week end I pulled the inspection cover to take a look, the disk would spin freely when the clutch pedal was depressed which perplexed me and I didn't see any thing that looked out of the ordinary. I did the usual; checked the tranny oil level, adjusted the clutch a little tighter and checked to make sure the shifter was adjusted correctly. When I test drove it was typical ok when cold and got worse as everything got hot.

When I got home I went to put the car in the garage and pressed the clutch in and I heard a pop and the car lurched. It was as though the linkage had come off but everything was hooked up and moving. Finally got a chance last night to get the car back up in the air and when I pulled the inspection cover off one of the adjustment nuts for the fingers was sitting at an angle and when I touched it came off and a piece of the threaded mating part was broken off inside so only two of the three fingers were acting on the pressure plate. I pulled the car apart last night but didn't get the pressure plate removed from the fly wheel so I could see what had happened.

The new clutch will be in today so I hope to get back into the garage today. I will report on what failed when I get the old pressure plate onto the bench and can look at it.

My point is if the clutch is dragging at all it will cause shifting issues.
 
I had a chance to closely examine the failed clutch.

The three fingers that disengage the pressure plate are suspended from the outer housing and have a large adjustment nut to set the finger height. This piece has a cross hole where a pin passes through for the finger to pivot on.

Based on the two stages of failure; initial hard shifting into reverse and first then no release at all of the clutch after a poping sound I believe the inital failure was the piece that the finger mounts on cracked through where the cross pin is. This prevented that finger from providing its full range of motion and the resulting drag that made shifting into reverse difficult. The pop sound I heard was the pivot piece fracturing at the threads into the adjustment nut resulting in no pressure plate disengagement from that finger.

The new clutch is the same three finger style but is a performance version rated for up to 500 HP engines where the one that failed was an OE replacement. The piece the finger pivots on and its threaded adjust area is much larger in diameter than the OE clutch. FWIW, the failed clutch was a ZOOM OE replacement assembly the new clutch is a RAM "Muscle Car" high performance clutch.
 
This last weekend i installed a new shifter and have basically no more problems. I believe my clutch still may not be perfectly adjusted and when it gets hot its wanting to drag.
 
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