I know very little about transmissions so I hope someone can help me narrow down what I'm dealing with: I have the original 4 speed tranny. I am getting a lot of resistance when shifting into 1st gear. Sometimes it requires just slight amount of extra push to get it in gear, sometimes it requires so much the shift lever is flexing. It never goes into gear as easy as the other gears (all of which seem totally ok), and it stays in gear just fine once engaged. It happens whether the engine is running or not, and the clutch feels normal. When I downshift into 1st the synchros spin up as I attempt to get it into gear (before I actually get it into gear). It feels like whatever causes the natural resistance when shifting into gear is worn or something and so shifting is more difficult. Any ideas on where to look/how to diagnose?
You have an L40 transmission, right? Unfortuntely not many companies carrying any parts for those more vintage transmissions. My guess is it's the shifter seat bushing or the one on the end of shifter (ball cup?), they fail after time even in the 80s/90s trucks since it's a plastic part that breaks/wears out. MarlinCrawler and a few other companies carry them, but it says for the L45 trans - you may see if it fits yours, it's only like $12 part.
Well I bought the shifter seat bushing and the shifter socket from Marlin Crawler and unfortunately they don't work for this older L40 transmission. In case someone in the same boat is curious, I'll give some details: Seems like this tranny never had bushings - the MC shifter seat bushing looks like it would fit the pivot ball, but there's no room for it in the housing. The pins are lower in the housing than in new transmissions, so there's no room for a separate bushing below them. Also the base of the housing is machined to match the pivot ball. So, I just cleaned and re-greased that area. Luckily there didn't seem to be much wear. Lower down at the end of the shift lever where the MC socket bushing would go - the housing was too small for that bushing. There was a bunch of grime in that housing so I'm not sure if it at one time had some other bushing in there, but there was a lot of play so I assume there was. Luckily, I was able to find a smaller nylon sleeve bushing at the hardware store that fit perfectly in the body and had an inner diameter that the shift lever ball-end fit snugly into. Its not a cup/socket, so it may work its way out of there over time, but for now it really tightened things up! Unfortunately it didn't really solve my issue with shifting into first gear. Still can really resist. So I also replaced the master and slave cylinders - they were super old and the fluid was black. I feel good that those are now shiny and new, but that also didn't solve my issue. When I get a recharge on motivation I'll drain the tranny and look further.
Following. I have the opposite issue, so much slop in both my transmissions that I don't know what gear it's in. Hitting pause on my build to get another project out the door to the paint shop, but this is on my list to tackle over the winter.
Jrbobbles you figure this out? I've got an L43 4-speed with the same issue. I have to force 1st into gear, feels like I'm pushing past a gate or something? In general my other gears shift fine. I replaced my shifter bushings and the master/slave cylinder but I'm still having the same problem.
