Cross shifter arm 'play'

Ric Simpson wrote: Hi! All the best, Ric.

Hey Ric!

Where were you this year? I did not see you in Auburn and you are hard to miss!

Bill H.

Just hope you don't brake down,because they will have their first rau and will blame you not only for the first trouble but all to follow and finaly divorce.

The only way you get out of this will be, that you offer them a drive with your ( repaired ) Cord to chauffeur them to the Laywers for divorce and have an other romantic brakedown, they will remember well and make up.

If not ....... you better run !!! <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

Scott Fergusson wrote:
And by the way, I'm chauffeuring the car in a wedding this weekend... What could go wrong?

On the Cord? Or in the marriage? <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

--Tom

Thanks for the help everyone!

As Ric wrote - the arm and dogbone are held in place with a taper pin or 'pinch' bolt that once I stopped pounding on the wrong side came out easily.

Getting the dogbone off the end of the shaft was a real ordeal though. Since I had a new shaft, we drilled through the shaft close to the dogbone to break it off.

Bushings came out ok. The vacuum end of the shaft had an small ring and original leather seal as well. I bought a new seal.

I'll be putting the pieces back together.

And by the way, I'm chauffeuring the car in a wedding this weekend... What could go wrong?

Hi Ric,

If you have scanned those plans I'd be grateful if you could email them to me or post them in the forum. The Old Lady is not ready for dealing with this particular set of problems yet, but the time will come.

<a href="mailto:[email protected]][email protected][/url]

Thank you,

--Tom

Hi,

As promised, I took a look at the cross shifter in The Old Lady. My car is fitted with an Allen cap screw that is secured with an anti-backout wire! Who knows when that was installed?!?!?

--Tom

Hi! I'm not a machinist so I may use the wrong terminology! As I remember
the shift arm is located by a woodruff key, and opposite a taper plug that is driven in to hold the arm tight to the shaft. Most of the cars I had had been worked on by previous mechanics and a favourite way to secure the shifter arm was welding, brazing, maybe airplane glue. Whatever it didn't work and you are left with the problem of removing the arm. In your case it sounds like you could drill, tap and pull the taper plug out so the shifter arm will move off the woodruff key. I don't think you can get on the other side of the plug to drive it out???. You have the same problem with the "dog bone" piece that moves the shift rails. It is inside the cross-shift housing. Same style of fixing, (woodruff key and taper plug). As you are working, I suggest the least important piece is the cross shaft itself. You will probably be replacing it with a new one as I believe they are available, maybe in stainless. I'm not sure the shifting arm and "dogbone" are. If you break either of them, I may have some in my parts bin. New bushings are important (bronze or brass?) mine were machined to hold 0-rings to further seal the vacuum. I have a blueprint of the machining for the set-up
made by Wat Adams in the 60s if it would help. Ric.

Why do you recommend a allen cap screw instead of e hex normal screw ?

Scott, The nub you see is the pin that goes through the arm and original. The split in the arm is a modification that was done later and a good idea to secure it. Tap the hole 5/16 and use an allen cap screw.

Hi Scott,

Since my car shifting hardware is, to the best of my knowledge, original, I'll look at my shifter tomorrow and see what I can tell from it. Hold off on the hammer until you KNOW what's up with it.

--Tom

I have the cross-shifter assembly off the car with little trouble, but I'm having a devil of a time getting the arm free. <!-- s:evil: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_evil.gif" alt=":evil:" title="Evil or Very Mad" /><!-- s:evil: -->

The arm is on the shaft and has play, but if there ever was a screw squeezing the arm to the shaft mine doesn't have it - it looks like two rounded nubs of metal and the paint looks solid, like the casting never had a cut in it. There doesn't seem to be a way to loosen the arm at all. Do I just pound it down past the woodruff key?

Does anyone have any advice/been there, done that help?

Hi! G0od stuff! Don't forget the "dog-bone" that is attached to the end of the shaft in the same manner. It usually wears at the same rate and play in it will compound with the play on the shift lever. Zero play is always good! All the best, Ric.

Thank you! Yes, I agree with you - a rebuild is the right thing to do. I've ordered a new arm, shaft, bushings and seals from Auburn/Cord parts. They even threw in a new woodruff key

Hi! My suggestions are based on several year experience. If it can go wrong, it has happened to me! I have found that shifting arm play will cause shifting difficulty. It is difficult to keep the arm on the cross shaft solid, but it is very necessary! I suggest if you have any play at all on this lever, you bite the bullet and remove the housing, and rebuild the unit. Time to use a new shaft, new bushings, taper pins, woodruff keys etc. There are some very beneficial modifications that can be incorporated while you are in there. Namely: seals/o-rings installed on the vacuum end of the shaft. You could also inspect the leather diaphragm. It may be the original, and therefore 70 years+ old. I have done all the above, and in my 6o years f driving, found that it needed re-doing more than once. If it is more than you want to do at this time, it is possible to carefully adjust the mechanical parts to keep it working, but you have to play with the shifting method to get all your gears. I suggest you leave the cover off while adjusting. I have seen several attempts to weld the pieces onto the shaft. They were probably successful for a little while, all the welded examples I came across had failed. All the best, Ric.

I'm having trouble getting 1st and 4th (heck - reverse too), and when I get those gears, I have trouble getting out of them.

After I pulled the transmission cover off, I noticed that the cross shifter arm moves quite a bit before it engages the shaft - maybe 1.5" arc at the top of the arm. This seems to be acceptable for 2nd and 3rd, but the reach combined with the play makes it tough to get into fourth and difficult to get out of fourth.

My guess is that the arm is wearing out -

Any guidance is definitely appreciated.

Scott