Cord Shifting

Another thing you may want to check is whether the shift cylinder neutral position is in the same place when the transmission is warm. I had a similar problem and found that when warm the neutral position was often just off the gate enough that the cross shift movement would hang up in the gate and not complete. Other times the cylinder would stop within the zone that allowed the cross shaft to move sideways and the shift was OK. When I examined the neutral switch I found the central arm loose in its mounting so would stop the cylinder in various places. After some epoxy work it has not missed a shift since. (Kudos to Pat Leahy for pointing me in the right direction!)

Hi,

You might see marks, in this case you must fit the brackets to lift and rise Fenders with trannycover, not much but just enough. I can ask my friend who discovered this issue twice, if he has pic's, as my Project cord is missing them too.

I would LOVE to see what these pieces look like. There may actually be such parts in my boxes of pieces and parts waiting to be identified! With reassembly of the car on the nearer-than-ever-before horizon, I'd sure like to know what they look like!

Thanks,

--Tom

just a thought, look at the inside of the trannycover to see if the shiftfinger is rubbing aginst it,this will prevent the shiftfinger from moving fully and correctly. It apears to happen often, because the cover and frontfenders are missing the two brackets to the stubframe to support them. You might see marks, in this case you must fit the brackets to lift and rise Fenders with trannycover, not much but just enough. I can ask my friend who discovered this issue twice, if he has pic's, as my Project cord is missing them too. The rubbers are a good bet too. Or a loose shiftfinger on it's shaft, is it screwd or brazed, welded or even glued ? all seen before....
Best regards Philipp

The first question I'd have is when you are having trouble getting into first, can you get reverse and third gear OK? If you get reverse and Third OK would tend to rule out a vacuum problem.

Also are the front wheels still turning (slightly) as you are trying to get into first? Have you tried pulling the trans cover (sheet metal) to see what the shifting mechanism is actually doing when it won't go into first. Does the cross shift lever move to the side? Does it try to pull into gear?

Thanks for all the ideas. All of the under the hood rebuild was done by the good folks at Auburn/Cord (Stan Gilliland).

I would check to see why the clutch does not return correctly. I have found that the clutch switch is often the problem, especially if it is an original unit. The originals were of poor design and the board with the contacts is often warped and makes intermittent contact. This also causes the clutch to hang up and not return to a fully release or engaged position. One of my CORD's has had the same problem and I traced it to a clutch switch issue. The other gears generally engage faster and easier since they are are not a straight cut, non syncronized gear.

Check to see if your vacumn cylinder is tight to it's mounting bracket. The rubbers which secure it to the mounting bracket have to be very tight. If they aren't you'll get the problem you are talking about. There have been a number of rubbers sold which aren't correct. If not tight try washering the rubbers up to make them tight or replace the rubbers.

This is a tuff problem to fix because it comes and goes. I'm thinking it electrical. You posted that everything was rebuilt a few years ago. Can you post who did the trans rebuild if in fact it was done. An electrical problem is tuff to fix. What wire harness did you install. The Portz wire harness for the shifting is a little bit differant from the original. It does not have the plug just past the firewall but it does have what looks like that plug. Reason Henry did away with that was to get rid of some of the electrical issues with shorts and corrosion in that location. If your running the original wire harnes to the shift system that probable is your problem. Also if you post what state your in maybe someone lives near you. I'm in So Ca. near Randy Emma who is known for his wealth of Duesenberg information. Henry Ports who has a deep wealth of information about the 810 & 812 Cords and Ron Irwin who is the 810 & 812 Cord historian...

I have looked through all the prior posts on this subject and do not find anyone with the problem I am having so please help point me in the right direction.

When the car is cool/cold almost all the shifting works fine. After driving awhile getting it to go into first starts to be sporadic. After things get really warmed up it will rarely go into first.

The problem seems to take two forms. Sometimes it simply doesn't go into first. Others it is hard to tell because the clutch pedal seems to get stuck and will not release.

Shifting into second and letting the clutch out until the car rolls a bit and then trying first again sometimes seems to get it to go. At other times nothing I have tried will convince it to go into first again after it is well warmed up.

Going into the other gears is usually trouble free. Occasional clashing but rarely.

Everything was gone through and rebuilt when I did the restoration several years ago but this problem has always been there