Down Shifting Help

I am not an expert on the Cord gear box however I do know that everything has to be adjusted correctly. There is a book on the Cord gear box written by Sid Ayres available from the Museum in Auburn. It explains how to adjust all of the switches including the clutch switch.
You should also clean out the filter on the LHS of the gear box and fit high powered magnets to the drain plugs to prolong the life of the gears etc. Your wife is a very lucky person .................................. WOW what a present !

Thanks Terry. I reviewed the newsletter, and worked on the car all yesterday. The car now beautifully shifts up and down with zero grinding or missing of gears. But....now the preselect feature is totally inoperative. Is there one thing that causes that solely? Only thing I can think of is the clutch switch is the culprit?

In the second last Newsletter is a detailed article on how to set up all of the switches correctly.
I had trouble with selecting gears and traced it to worn keyways in the small cross shaft at the front of the gearbox. Things would get out of synchronization.
To avoid crunching gears when stationary I fitted micro switches to 1st gear and reverse with indicator lights under the dash. You know if the gear has been engaged by the light. The attached picture shows the micro switches with the gear box cover removed.

I have a 812 Sportsman, that I bought for my wife. The shifting from the beginning has been troublesome, and I have been trying to trouble shoot, thanks to the help of this forum. I have cleaned all contacts, made sure the vacuum system is tight, and the tank is rigid. Last night I finally got the car to nicely preselect shift (before I could only get to do it manually or traditionally I guess you would say) on its own up through the gears. I can down shift from third to second, and at the last crawl into first. Once I get to 4th gear though.....the only way to get it in a lower gear, is come to a stop and play around shifting it into first. IT takes a few tries for it to take to the first gear again. When sitting, I can go through all the gears, but for some reason it won't work on the road. Any words of wisdom?