FMX out of nowhere the shift pattern is all flipped

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DattPaletero

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Joined
Aug 10, 2014
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Location
Dallas
My Car
1973 Mustang Mach I - H Code
adjusted kickdown lever, drove it and everything worked fine, parked it overnight, got up next day and reverse went forward and "Park" feels like its in gear but no movement, i cant rev the engine past 1,5k rpms while in drive. Reverse is sometimes neutral or drive, drive is sometimes neutral or reverse and 1st and 2nd vary between park and drive.

Im at a lost, has my FMX hit the fan or did the linkage somehow get misadjusted?:mad::(

 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's possible the bolt for the shifter was loose and when you put it in park that last time the shifter linkage slipped.

You would need to jack the car up and with the engine off, have someone inside the car move the shifter and observe the linkage.

My car when I first got it the shifter was out of adjustment it was hitting gear but my reverse lights and nuetral safety didnt work right. It was just the bolt loose on my linkage.

adjusted kickdown lever, drove it and everything worked fine, parked it overnight, got up next day and reverse went forward and "Park" feels like its in gear but no movement, i cant rev the engine past 1,5k rpms while in drive. Reverse is sometimes neutral or drive, drive is sometimes neutral or reverse and 1st and 2nd vary between park and drive.

Im at a lost, has my FMX hit the fan or did the linkage somehow get misadjusted?:mad::(
Click to expand...
 
Id agree with 72HCode. I'd add (generally speaking) loosen the nut on the shifter linkage under the car. The part of the linkage that is bolted to the trans. With the nut loose the part of the trans that is bolted to the linkage should be turned counter clockwise as far as it can go. With the shifter in park you then tighten the nut back up. That should set you where you need to be. You'll see what I mean when you get under the car. Have someone run through P, R, N, D, 2, 1 while you are under it to make sure everything is working right.

 
Id agree with 72HCode. I'd add (generally speaking) loosen the nut on the shifter linkage under the car. The part of the linkage that is bolted to the trans. With the nut loose the part of the trans that is bolted to the linkage should be turned counter clockwise as far as it can go. With the shifter in park you then tighten the nut back up. That should set you where you need to be. You'll see what I mean when you get under the car. Have someone run through P, R, N, D, 2, 1 while you are under it to make sure everything is working right.
Click to expand...
Okay i'm gonna try that tomorrow, thanks!! It's just weird because that day it drove like it normally had the day before and it's my daily driver. So when its in P the linkage should be all the way counter clockwise until it stops?



It's possible the bolt for the shifter was loose and when you put it in park that last time the shifter linkage slipped.

You would need to jack the car up and with the engine off, have someone inside the car move the shifter and observe the linkage.

My car when I first got it the shifter was out of adjustment it was hitting gear but my reverse lights and nuetral safety didnt work right. It was just the bolt loose on my linkage.

adjusted kickdown lever, drove it and everything worked fine, parked it overnight, got up next day and reverse went forward and "Park" feels like its in gear but no movement, i cant rev the engine past 1,5k rpms while in drive. Reverse is sometimes neutral or drive, drive is sometimes neutral or reverse and 1st and 2nd vary between park and drive.

Im at a lost, has my FMX hit the fan or did the linkage somehow get misadjusted?:mad::(
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Man I hope so, the linkage doesnt seem to bind anywhere. Thanks

 
Last edited by a moderator:
i hope its something easy because the kick down lever is a different lever arm on the transmission and should not be causing the problem.

if things are out of alignment then you will hear the arm engage when the shifter is in between points, you can also hold the transmission lever and try to move the shifter and see if its slipping on the linkage. i knew mine was out of whack because i would feel it going into neutral when it should be in drive and i would bump the shifter and it would engage.

so i went under and found my bolt loose, so i loosened it more, put the shifter in park and then moved the lever on the trans all the way to front tightened it down and tried to row through the gears. I found my alignment was still not 100% so i rolled the shifter into reverse. loosened the bolt again, with the lever on the trans in reverse i then moved the shifter just a little so my reverse lights switch was working which aligned my neutral safety also, i held the shifter in position with some tape, then went under and tightened the bolt again, and then double checked and everything looked right, so i road tested and everything was good.

if there is a major problem with your trans then it would be something in the Valve body you would have to drop the pan drain the trans fluid and pull the valve body out for inspection.

 
i hope its something easy because the kick down lever is a different lever arm on the transmission and should not be causing the problem.

if things are out of alignment then you will hear the arm engage when the shifter is in between points, you can also hold the transmission lever and try to move the shifter and see if its slipping on the linkage. i knew mine was out of whack because i would feel it going into neutral when it should be in drive and i would bump the shifter and it would engage.

so i went under and found my bolt loose, so i loosened it more, put the shifter in park and then moved the lever on the trans all the way to front tightened it down and tried to row through the gears. I found my alignment was still not 100% so i rolled the shifter into reverse. loosened the bolt again, with the lever on the trans in reverse i then moved the shifter just a little so my reverse lights switch was working which aligned my neutral safety also, i held the shifter in position with some tape, then went under and tightened the bolt again, and then double checked and everything looked right, so i road tested and everything was good.

if there is a major problem with your trans then it would be something in the Valve body you would have to drop the pan drain the trans fluid and pull the valve body out for inspection.
Click to expand...
Okay so i took off the shifter and all of the linkage(column lock, kickdown) and reached into the hole and manually shifted the tranny so that I could see if it was the shifter just being worn out, but no it still does the same thing, so now I should know that it's an internal problem.

Dropped the pan and i didn't really see anything other than normal stuff for a 40 year old tranny, i did find some kind of almost like gasket material.

I inspected the linkage from the inside and saw this; I don't know if that's how it's supposed to be or if it's supposed to be inbetween the two metal circles on the horizontal shaft?

CjcfRE9.jpg


 
ok that is not good. it should engage like this

IM002769-1.jpg


at the blue arrow.

DSC02191.JPG


2 things bug me right away.

1) why does it look like you have fresh damage on top of that area in the photo.(grind marks)?

2) why did that piston move out of the notch?

now you can check if the valve body is loose try moving the lower parts of the transmission around to see if they are loose.

if the valve body was loose then that piston could of jumped track,, still not good.

Q: is there an issue with the kickdown level linkage in the transmission?

A; i don't know but if this never happened before and now you got the kick down reinstalled and its doing it something is up.

Q: why was the kick down disabled in the first place.

A: Hummmmmmmm

i would want to do some research here, get a FMX rebuild book, or there is a video you can get from Badshoe:

http://www.badshoeproductions.com/fmx.html

these videos are REALLY good i have the C6 and Ford 9" rebuild videos and they are well worth the money.

i don't have much experience with the internals of a FMX another member might chime in.

now you can try loosing the valve body and then move the piston back in to reset the linkage, then maybe roll the shifter through the gears and observe how the linkage moves and maybe force the kick down rod down and see if you spot something inside binding.

 
Learned something new here again. I had a kickdown on my c4 but my FMX does not have one. I guess my suspicion that it was missing it correct. Now I need to decide on cable or other. Hope you get it figured out.

 
ok that is not good. it should engage like this

IM002769-1.jpg


at the blue arrow.

DSC02191.JPG


2 things bug me right away.

1) why does it look like you have fresh damage on top of that area in the photo.(grind marks)?

2) why did that piston move out of the notch?

now you can check if the valve body is loose try moving the lower parts of the transmission around to see if they are loose.

if the valve body was loose then that piston could of jumped track,, still not good.

Q: is there an issue with the kickdown level linkage in the transmission?

A; i don't know but if this never happened before and now you got the kick down reinstalled and its doing it something is up.

Q: why was the kick down disabled in the first place.

A: Hummmmmmmm

i would want to do some research here, get a FMX rebuild book, or there is a video you can get from Badshoe:

http://www.badshoeproductions.com/fmx.html

these videos are REALLY good i have the C6 and Ford 9" rebuild videos and they are well worth the money.

i don't have much experience with the internals of a FMX another member might chime in.

now you can try loosing the valve body and then move the piston back in to reset the linkage, then maybe roll the shifter through the gears and observe how the linkage moves and maybe force the kick down rod down and see if you spot something inside binding.
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input! To answer your questions and concerns: Those grind marks look like they were from when it probably jumped out or something? and I have no idea how it jumped, it does cycle the transmission so it made it seem like the linkage slipped, sadly that is not the cause.

The kickdown was on there it's just that it hits the long tubes just barely so sometimes it engaged and downshifted the tranny when you punched the gas.

I'm going to check the valve body tomorrow and see for any play since i ran out of time. I will check out that website too, thanks a lot!



Learned something new here again. I had a kickdown on my c4 but my FMX does not have one. I guess my suspicion that it was missing it correct. Now I need to decide on cable or other. Hope you get it figured out.
Click to expand...
Does it have longtube headers? my kickdown hits the headers and it doesnt fully engage it so i'm gonna have to modify it, maybe get some small tubing for like brake line and secure it to block and run one of those steel parking cable lines from the carb to the kickdown lever on trans. It might work.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Yes, long tube headers. This is how I bought the car. Are you saying with cable or traditional shift linkage it would require mods?

 
Yes, long tube headers. This is how I bought the car. Are you saying with cable or traditional shift linkage it would require mods?
Click to expand...
Mine came with long tubes also, and it came with the traditional linkage ,the bent medal rod one, so i'm gonna try to convert it to cable.

 
Okay I managed to slip it back in to where to supposed to go and went ahead an changed the filter and gasket and oil, all is well now. :D

 

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