hi chad
Sorry for the late reply, been busy at work and family stuff. But here's an update.
My wife borrowed my son's falcon one day while my son was at school to go shopping wile I was at work.
She came back out to the car and couldn't get it in gear. So I left work and went to the car sure enough couldn't
Get it into gear easily and not reverse. Pushed it back out of the spot and I drove it home, power shifting it all the way home.
when my son arrived home from school he helped me finish pulling the transmission. The throw out bearing was ceased up tight and the pressure plate finger tips were gone.
So the previous owner told us that the collum shift mechanism linkage wore out and so he converted it to floor shiter.
And my son has been driving the car as a three speed. I have only driven the car a couple of times , it drove pretty good at first and we knew that the original 144 six ( original) engine was pretty played out. We rebuilt the carb and did a tune up. I tryed to ajust the w valves but most of the rocker valve lash screws wouldn't budge.so we left them alone so as not to make thing worse. The engine would stall and die on take off so he would rev the the engine to keep it from stalling. The clutch really didn't make any bad noises. I think it's been stalling because what we thought was first gear was actually secound gear?
After pulling the transmission and finding out it was a four speed and doing some research on the net I figured out some things
1, it has a hurst competition plus shifter and on this trans it is not mounted on the end of the tailshaft but at the front of the tailshaft.
2, it appears that whoever installed the fourspeed didn't have the correct linkage. So they took the linkage they had and
Bent, cut and welded it back together to make it work-not. It was always hard to get it into reverse.
3, looking at some pictures on the web( what I could find) the three / four linkage goes down and under. They went up and over and the linkage was rubbing/ binding on the trans tunnel.
4,the reverse linkage was rubbing on the first - second linkage were it was welded.
5, all the seals were leaking.
6,some parts are available.
So we put it up on the workbench and took it apart. Input and output shaft housing's and the side cover shift fork assembly
The inside looked spotless, no metal fillings of any kind and the gear oil was clean. So I ordered all the seals and a new output shaft bearing. also new clutch ,pressure plate, throw out bearing and pilot bushing. also had the flywheel resurfaced.
Half the parts were wrong. Ford top loader parts are not the same( seals,gaskets,tailshaft bearings).
So we made gaskets and put it back together ( after cleaning every part and painting trans) pulled the complete shifter apart
And cleaned, polished and lubricated it. The old pilot bushing wasway to big to support the input shaft. The new one went on if I twisted it as I pushed it on. So we installed it. We had a tough time getting the trans in the last half inch but after wiggling it we did get it in and back together. Had to reorder the tail shaft rubber mount as they sent the wrong one.
The test drive didnt go well still wouldn't go into first.tried to sort out the linkage problems and all the gaskets that I made have some drips. I think the pilot bushing is too tight and the input shaft is not spinning freely.
So it needs to come back out. The pilot bushing will have a couple of thousands shaved off of it ( I have a metal working lathe ) the proper gaskets will be sourced. I called hurst - B&M co the tech I talked to gave me a part number for the correct shift linkage bushing kit for $209.00 or I can get some 3/8 drill rod and some heim joints and make them.
I'm debating pulling the guts of the trans apart? Alot of work for a trans that is not going to stay in it.
The engine rebuild is on hold for now. We are looking for a good running late model 200 i6 at a reasonable price. found a couple out of state but they won't ship local pick up only. It's a time thing it's going to take some time to rebuild the engine we have before the one in the car dies.
Sorry for the long winded reply. But we will get the mellenum falcon back on the road. It's just going to take some time.
Keep on roll'n.
Colin.
