Run Away Truck

[Johnm]

So I got a call from my Dad back home the other day telling me that he had crashed my truck. He started my 69 250, ran inside the house to grab his jacket, and upon emerging from the house found my truck in reverse about to hit our neighbors car. To stop this from happening again, I would like to replace the broken gear selector, but cant find the part anywhere. I vaguely remember hearing this part described as a gear selector "gate". Can anyone point me in the right direction?

1969 F250 360 C6

Thanks,
Johnm

[mrollings53]

The thing that locks the gear selector into park is inside the shift collar, and the turn signal switch housing on the steering column. It could be that the point where the shift lever attaches to the collar is worn; causing excessive play in the lever, the spring inside the plunger assembly that pushes the shift lever into it's locking indent is broken, or the "locking indent" itself is worn/broken.

shift lever.jpg

The red box is the locking indent mounted to the back of the turn signal switch housing. There is a protrusion on the shift lever in the area inside the green box that fits into those slots. The plunger assembly in the blue box pushes onto the shift lever, keeping the protrusion in the indent. Any one of those could be causing the problem.

You can get a new shift collar from any auto parts store. It's Dorman PN: 83242. It says '73-'79 w/out tilt, but it works on '67-'72 trucks too. It will come with a replacement spring for the plunger assembly.

The indent thing is a little harder to come by. I think I remember someone mentioning they found one for sale somewhere, but I can't remember where. If you're handy, you could probably make a new one out of some sheet metal.

Here's the original picture of the cutout above.

[Johnm]

Upon further investigation I found a local store that sells the detent and one on ebay...well kind of. Do you know if any of these would work for my C6, or could be modified.?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1970-1971-1972- ... 0934251704

http://www.tomsbroncoparts.com/product/ ... kout-plate (This one could be promising)

http://cgfordparts.com/ufolder/cgcat.ph ... mber=7a216

Thanks,
Johnm

[sargentrs]

I don't know about that 1st one. Nothing like that on my column. The other two look right. Here's a shot of mine for comparison.

[Johnm]

I cracked out the column yesterday and this is what I found.


I'm thinking this is the problem, does anyone have a picture of what a knob Should look like?

[sargentrs]

Those parts don't look too bad to me although the tip does look a little short, from the photo. Here's a pic of my lever. You can also see some more pics here http://www.fordification.com/forum/view ... =5&t=72274 Did you have the rubber insulator on the end? How about the welded emboss on the top side of the shift tube? Did the hole look "wallered" out?

[Johnm]

Yup i have the rubber insulator which has a little wear but nothing crazy. I got the entire column out of the truck today and here are the results.

I believe this the is emboss you where referring to..
Here is the one on the upper end:

And the one on the lower end:


When I pulled the inner shaft, I found something to be a little troubling. It looks as tho someone tried to weld some kind of stop on the bottom. When looking at your pictures, I noticed that this was on yours, but mine looks pretty janky.




Also, the bottom of the outer column, where the lower bearing is located looks as tho it has been flared out a bit.



I was able to get the bearing out and after cleaning it up a bit notice some minor wear:

[sargentrs]

Yup i have the rubber insulator which has a little wear but nothing crazy. I got the entire column out of the truck today and here are the results.

I believe this the is emboss you where referring to..
Here is the one on the upper end:
[ Image ]

Looks OK.

And the one on the lower end:
[ Image ]

Not bad.

When I pulled the inner shaft, I found something to be a little troubling. It looks as tho someone tried to weld some kind of stop on the bottom. When looking at your pictures, I noticed that this was on yours, but mine looks pretty janky.
[ Image ]
[ Image ]
[ Image ]

Looks like they had some issues with it staying in place. That backs up against the lower column bearing and insures the retainer ring stays firmly seated. My automatic column has a collar with set screws but my 3 spd column had one similar.

lowercolumnbearing.jpg

Also, the bottom of the outer column, where the lower bearing is located looks as tho it has been flared out a bit.
[ Image ]
[ Image ]

This is not a concern. No big deal.

I was able to get the bearing out and after cleaning it up a bit notice some minor wear:
[ Image ]
[ Image ]

Looks OK to me.

All in all, it doesn't look bad and all the wearable pieces look to be in good shape. How was the plunger in the shift collar? Did it hold good pressure on the shift lever?

mms_img-1702965565.jpg

[Johnm]

Sorry of the late response, as life threw me a few curve balls haha. Everything went together well, except for a few parts. When i was trying to re-install the column, that collar around the bottom of the steering shaft was getting in the way and didnt allow for any of the threads to be exposed beyond the steering wheel, thus stopping me from tightening the bolt on the steering wheel to tighten everything up. Secondly, I'm a little confused about the purpose of the "Flange Bolts" # 19 in the picture. What is the purpose of these, do they connect to the column somehow?

These are just some pics to show how everything else turned out so far.

[FORDification]

Those flange bolts are what connect the turn signal switch housing (#21 in your graphic) to the main column housing. The head of the flange bolt hooks into the slot at the top of the column housing, like this:

[Johnm]

Are the screws supposed to have a hook on them, mine are simply a square at the end. I had a feeling this was the case and tried to assemble it as described and found that I needed 3 or 4 more hands. Any suggestions on how to get everything together easily?

Thanks!!

[toddspeed]

yep getting those square heads to engage while holding everything in place is a huge PITA!

[72BahamaBlue]

After installing the shifter tube/spring/lever, I found it helpful to compress the shifter tube spring, stick a small screwdriver into the neutral safety switch clip center hole, screwdriver will rest against the column tube and keep the spring compressed a bit while you line everything else up.
I used a dab of strip caulk (kinda like sticky silly putty) to hold those rectangle-end bolts in place.
Once the bolts are through the collar, gently pull them through and the tapered recess will get them into postion. All the while you've got to compress the shifter tube spring...it's a fiddly operation. Swearing helps.


*edit*...Next column rebuild, I'm gonna try what Sargeant posted!

[91Bear]

Don't worry. If you're like the rest of us, after taking it apart and putting it together about 14 times you should get the hang of it!

[sargentrs]

Here's another way Green23 suggested in my column rebuild thread...

Green23 says:
" I just finished rebuilding my '68 manual column, and found an easy way to install those square-head tube flange bolts. Just install them in position on the flange with the small nuts started 1 or 2 turns, then while holding the entire column assembly vertical install the flange over the shift collar and wiggle a bit. The square heads will seat themselves down in the 2 slots and can then be easily tightened. I suspect this is how they were originally installed as there is no sign of grease, glue, etc. on the bolts when first removed."