I have a 79 transmission that was in storage for a number of years. I thought it was safe and dry in that shed. The oil was drained prior to storage. I pulled it out of storage to find that it's now stuck in 4th gear. I'm able to turn the input shaft so I suppose it's not rusted. And I can move the stick to neutral, but that doesn't take it out of gear. It won't go into any other gear. I'm going to pull the shifter housing off to see what's going on.

I never heard of there being any kind of shift linkages on these transmissions. Are there any kind of adjustments to be made?

My guess is that I'm just going to have to get some oil in there and work it loose.

 

During a SCCA PDX I had my 79' transmission get stuck in 3rd gear. No matter what I couldn't get it to come out. I never took it apart to see what the issue. I found out it was relatively common for SA transmissions, so I swapped in a FB trans and called it a day. I would be interested to know what exactly caused it though. So, rip it open!

 

There are so many awkward shifter moving parts inside that there is probably something stuck on the shifting rails , it would take almost nothing for them to jam up . Even when in good condition I'm guessing that they need to be set perfect or they won't work .if the shifter moves to the neutral position without forcing and ( yea right hey ) and nothing happens then it is very possible that the fork on one or all shifting rail is out of sinc with the other 2 . pop the top and add some diesel fuel or some such thing penetrating fluid and roll it around a bit to get it soaked inside , when the top is off try to use a bit of a pry bar and get some movement happening just a little at a time until if your lucky they will start to slide .then try to line up the 3 shifter rails so the fork groove is straight across re stab the shifter and try it a bit , don't force it to much just try to move them . The gears them selves will hold a bit of oil between the shafts and the gears for a very long time . I betting the shift rails are stuck from sitting dry . If anything the tranny should have been left with oil in it . Won't cost you nothing to try . Gerald m.

 

I had a 79 trans get stuck in 2nd several times. The only way to pop it out was to go against compression. Then 1st started not wanting to go in. It was a high mile tranny so it was coming out at my convenience anyway. The only gear that naver gave any trouble was 4th.

 

Since the trans out not in the car, pull the sections apart and see f they folks need to be aligned.

I the shifter spring in one and got the folks all messed up. Had to pull it apart and realign the folks. It's not hard but it is tedious.

 

I think kansas is right.. There are three shift rods that look like the letter f the shifter rod (from shifter) has to go inbetween the top of the f shape between the top and second finger if you will... If one rod gets moved forward or back without the other two being in the neutral position or without the shifter rod in between them the trans will esentially be locked in one location.. Pull off the tailshaft and make sure all three are in center and that shifter rod is inbetween them... Hope thats it... This happened to me when I dropped my trans on bellhousing end vertically from about a foot of the ground...

 

Before you take any of the sections apart try removing the bolts that hold the ***** that click you into gear. I had one of mine seize up freezing up a shift fork. They are all located on the "plate" that holds the bearings in place for lack of a better description (not tail housing, not bell housing, not the middle section with the drain plug....). I'm sure the FSM has an illustration of sorts.

 

figure this out?

 

sry, haven't had time to open her up yet.

I hate getting side tracked from my projects.

If this is a common issue with SA transmissions,
I may try an FB tranny.

 

I have an SA trans that did this (as mentioned earlier).
After I "resolved" the issue, it came back.

Turns out there's a snap ring that holds the 3-4 synchronizer hub in place. If this snap ring fails (because of the helical cut nature of the gears) the car will essentially force the 4th gear synchro into the hub with so much force that it "locks into gear".
The symptom of this is a shifter that will go into any gear when the car is off, but when running it always feel like its in forth.

If the hub moves far enough the keys on the hub will pop out and make it impossible to move the shifter out of 4th.

This took me 5 tears downs to figure out btw. #SAlife lol