Tradesman 1978, Three on the Tree, shift problems

So my dad gave me his old van. In-line 6, Three on the Tree. I love it. It has been in storage for 4 years. Run great. Sometimes when I am shift it gets stuck in Reverse. But just the shifting is stuck, the trani is working. So what happens is the Steering column where it is connected kinda moves around so it looks like it is shifting into 1st. Today for the first time it did the same wierd thing while in 2nd...

No-one seems to know how to fix this thing. I want to keep it. Should I?

Hopefully someone with a Dodge van and standard shift will give a better answer. I can tell you that shifting problems eventually happen with most cars having column shift - from age/use/rust.
The mechanism of that shifter has to do two things. One is to move in the direction of a 1-to-2 shift. The other one is to move from the the 1/2 gate to the 3/r gate. The shifter on the column probably connects to 2 rods under the floor, which themselves connect to levers on the tranny, and there might even be another set of rods/levers on the way to the tranny. All of these connections have bushings - that get worn or dried out. The levers underneath can be loose on the shafts too. If you replace them all it should shift like new. (The mechanism inside the tranny usually holds up because its bathed in lube oil)
You should also check the lube level in the tranny (and differential), and grease the u-joints on the driveshaft. I -think- the wheel bearings in your van get their lubrication via the differential fluid that makes its way out along the axle shaft. Its another reason not to let the diff. fluid get low, or contaminated with water.
You havent said how many miles are on it. If the van steers in a mushy fashion, that too can be corrected so it steers like a new car. To me the three key elements are: getting the front wheel toe-in set properly, and snugging up the bearings in the steering box, and greasing all of thos grease fittings each 2k to 4k miles. The steering box should be adjusted about each 20,000 miles. If not, it begins to get vague. Its so slow to happen that someone who drives the vehicle every day may never notice it, and just think "An old vehicle wont steer that well". Not so. The adjustments arent hard, its just dirty work. We run into this steering problem with old motorhomes all the time, and the vans used the same type of steering box I believe.
Also, being a mopar ignition system, you should take the distributor cap off, pull the rotor off, and see if there is a place under there to put a drop of oil each 10,000 miles. I know the mopar V8s all had that. It was the only lubrication the centrifugal advance ever got. If your centrifugal advance begins to get sticky, it will give you intermittent timing mysteries, and make it impossible to set the ignition timing for decent mileage.

I see a familiar name.... Hi Dave.

ok.. on to the Van problem.

The bushings on the shaft inside the column housing are bad. It's likely that the bushings on the shift levers are also worn out or disintegrated.
You can still get the bushings at NAPA and most non-discount parts places...

(and I won't kid you here... it's a PAIN to disassemble the column.)

If you don't fix it, do this:
when stuck in reverse: push the clutch in (engine running), and yank on the lever rapidly in a downward, direction, but not pulled towards you, that just pulls on the wrong rod.

If stuck in First:

pull the lever up, and towards you, as if you were trying to go into reverse. you may also have to do this rapidly in succession until it frees.



Better that you fix it properly, however we all don't have the time or patience to disassemble the entire column and rod setup.

You could install a 3 speed shifter on the floor... the hurst model truck shifter works well, but it mounts backwards as opposed to a truck, and sometimes oversized seats will get in the way.... but it can be done (you'd have to cut a hole in the floor...)



Tom (Slantsixness)