Shifter question.

[Crazy]

My shifter will only go down to 3rd gear. I can't get it into 2nd. Do you think they blocked it? It was pretty scary going down the steep side of the Grapevine. The truck speed limit is 35 mph. I would slow down to 25 every time I got to 30mph, but I had to use my brakes over and over. There are two run away truck ramps on that grade. Before I take the shifter apart, is anybody else's shifter the same way?

 

[Elliot Naess]

Oooo.. I drive that grade all the time. Good sport!

Do you have a cable shifter or the infamous pneumatic push button arrangement?
The local district here has had trouble with the pneumatics and has replaced
some of those with a cable.

 

[Crazy]

I think mine is a cable shifter. I guess I will have to check.

 

[Elliot Naess]

You'd know. The pneumatic system has push buttons like a 1961 Rambler.

 

[Crazy]

I have a lever with a round knob and a button on top.

 

[Elliot Naess]

Very good. I suppose it could have been blocked to keep the district drivers from
overreving the engine.

 

[Crazy]

Maybe they don't have anything like the Grapevine in Scottsdale, AZ. I guess I will be taking it apart after I get other safety stuff done first. Was that you that got a build sheet from A-Z bus Sales for your bus. If it was you, what did you have to do to get it?

 

[Elliot Naess]

Yes, that was me. I just walked in and introduced myself. I offered to pay a few bucks,
like I did at IH, but she just printed it out and gave it to me.
I have found over the years, that if I offer right up front to pay a fair price for
something, then they tend to take me as a sincere future customer, and not
a bum looking for freebies.
One problem: The printout is not complete. The printer cut off the right edge, and she
couldn't get it to print properly. But I still got lots of info.

Where do you live, Cal?

 

[Crazy]

Tracy. If you take I5 to So Cal, you probably come within a few miles of me.

 

[Elliot Naess]

I haul freight in and out of Tracy all the time.

I'm thinking -- trying to visualize -- the problem could be that knob that you have
to push in for the shifter to go in certain gears. You probably have to squeeze
that knob to get into reverse?

A: The knob mechanism is worn?

B: You need to use the knob to get into 2nd and you didn't?

Just brainstorming. Too dark out there to get into Millicent to see how that one works.

 

[Elliot Naess]

I have to press the button on my shifter to move between ANY positions.

 

[Crazy]

That's the same with mine. It just wont go lower than third.

 

[Elliot Naess]

Then I agree that exploratory surgery is indicated. Wait... crawl underneath
first and look for something really simple like a piece of angle iron bolted to the
tranny to stop the lever (if there is an external lever).