1970 Ford 3 speed manual transmission help!!

[oldskoold]

New to the forum and I was told this was the place to be! My 1970 Ford F150 has a 302 with the manual 3 speed. The problem I have is, it was a column shift and was moved to a floor shifter and linkage was taken off and I think the tabs that engage the correct gear have been moved and out of sequence. I attached new linkage and it's not going into gear. I know the guy I bought the truck from and he says he moved them to show a potential buyer that the tranny was free, problem is he did this without the linkage on and moved both. How can I get them back in the right place/sequence? Am I doomed to just moving them around until all the gears work properly? Thanks in advance!

[sargentrs]

So you're still using the floor shift? Each lever only moves to 3 positions, front, center and rear. To line everything back up, put both levers on the transmission in the center position. That is neutral. Put your shifter in neutral and hook your linkage up so the rods just drop in place on the levers. There's a small amount of slack in both your shifter and in the transmission levers. You can move the tranny levers back and forth a little and will feel how much. Adjust your levers so the 1st/reverse lever has all the slack taken out of as your shifting into first. The 2nd/3rd lever, adjust so all the slack is taken out as your shifting into 2nd. Take it for a drive and see how it feels. Re-adjust accordingly.

[oldskoold]

Worked like a champ! Thanks for replying!!

[sargentrs]

Glad you got it!