[yzinger]

1980 Trans Am. 406 poncho - th350 auto.

Backdrive linkage NOT hooked up at this point.

My question is this: Lets say i put car in 1st, i can then easily (without pushing button or anything) move it to 2nd, drive, neutral etc..I thought it would be a stepped movement like it would sort of click into each gear and stay there without input from me. Can you school me on this some please?

Thanks PY.
B

[Will]

So what you're really talking about is how the shifter operates and not how the transmission is working... right?

I don't know if things changed in the late '70s, but early on the auto shifters used in the performance models (Formulas and TAs) had a sort of dual-gate functionality. If you pushed the lever over to the right then it was only possible to upshift one gear at a time. You had to release the lever which let it pop back to the left, then push to the right again to get the detente to prevent it from upshifting into neutral. If you kept the lever in the standard position (to the left) it would go all the way from 1st to Neutral without hitting a stop.

Not all auto shifters had this functionality. Yours may not, so maybe you'll want to search around for one that does. Such shifters are easy to identify - the sliding trim piece that moves with the shift lever has an oblong hole in it that the lever comes up through which allows the lever to be pushed to the right.

You should feel at least some clicking as the shifter moves up through the gears. If you don't then things in the shifter are probably fairly gummed up. Take the shifter out, clean it thoroughly (including the cable) then re-lube everything. You'll also be able to see how the shifter works when you do this.

The transmission itself should have spring loaded detentes in it that you can feel if you move the shift rod on the transmission itself by hand, but if the shifter and cable are good and gummed up you may not feel that at the shift lever.

[yzinger]

thanks..and, yes the tranny seems to work ok - just the shifting makes me nervous thinking it could pop into neutral or yikes reverse. I recall the trim piece has an oblong hole for lever to come up through but it was oblong in a north/south way - not east/west.

[Will]

It should absolutely not be able to shift into reverse without pushing the button. You can manually put it in 1 then push it all the way to N without hitting a stop, but at that point it should go no further. You should be able to verify this while sitting still pretty easily. If it goes into R without pushing the button, that shifter is FUBARd and at minimum needs a really thorough cleaning and going-through.

Put it in 1 then try pushing the lever over to the right. If it moves over, hold it over and push it up to 2, it should stop.

Good luck!

[goathead455]

If the shifter is moving too easily,possibly the detent roller isn't doing its job.
Even if you are moving the shifter forward,you should feel it click into each gear.

[Grand73Am]

Back drive linkage doesn't affect your problem, in case you were wondering. It just makes it so the car can't be started in gear, and works the backup lights. Without the linkage hooked up, your car will start in gear(so be careful not to start it in gear) and the backup lights don't work.
I agree with both posters above. Sounds like both a shifter problem and a transmission detent problem, since the shifter should have stop, and the trans should have the detent clicks.

[Squidward]

Originally Posted by Will

It should absolutely not be able to shift into reverse without pushing the button. You can manually put it in 1 then push it all the way to N without hitting a stop, but at that point it should go no further. You should be able to verify this while sitting still pretty easily. If it goes into R without pushing the button, that shifter is FUBARd and at minimum needs a really thorough cleaning and going-through.

Put it in 1 then try pushing the lever over to the right. If it moves over, hold it over and push it up to 2, it should stop.

Good luck!

That's how my 73 Formula shifted, with stopping at each gear when pushed over to the right.

My 76 shifter in my FB has no ratchet shift feature, and will push all the way up without abatement until it hits the anti-reverse lockout. I have to feel each movement for the "clunk" as it hits each gear.

[FrankieT/A]

On the ratcheting shifter it has a spring loaded feel when pushed to the right regardless of what gear it is in. Although this ratcheting style shifter came in many firebirds it is more popular in the Camaro. As we all know Camaro and firebird shifters are identical except for the knob. Bottom line if your car does not have the ratcheting style shifter they are common enough with a little searching. Be careful with the factory ratcheting shifter as they will not take a lot of abuse, the teeth that catch round off easily.

[PontGuy]

Good discussion on the ratcheting shifter. I've run across more than one owner over the years that did not realize that the shifter worked that way since it is sort of a "hidden" feature.

Back to the OP's question though, there is nothing in the shifter that actually holds the car in a given gear. That is accomplished by the detents in the trans. And you do not need to push the shifter button to move from first through to neutral. Even when new there was not nearly as much positive "clicking" going from gear to gear compared to today's cars. And if the linkage is not adjusted properly or there is slop in it then finding the gear you want can be a bit of a hunt. But once in gear it should stay there even if you mildly bump the shifter handle. If you have to hold the handle to keep it in gear then work is needed in the trans.

[455Darren]

If it's that easy to just "run" the shifter through the gears I would suspect that the detent spring (flat lever) and roller is broken or missing inside the trans. Dropping the pan would be required but easy to determine if it is ok.

[Skip Fix]

My 78 did not have a ratchet shifter, the 81 car did. Actually it is a whole lot looser in general even with decent bushings than the 78s so I swapped it for a non ratchet.

I always wondered why they never slotted the detent plate so you had to use the button to go to neutral. Something I've always thought about doing.

[PontGuy]

With the ratcheting shifter it won't accidentally get into neutral going through the gears- I always thought that was the best part about it.

I did something similar on a dirt track car that I built that had a column shifter. Modified the plate in the shifter assy so that I could bump it back and forth between first and second, but had to pull back on the handle to go to drive and neutral. It worked great at the track, even better than a ratcheting floor shifter. That plate was seriously hard though and I had to take it to the machine shop at work to cut it. I bet the plate in the floor shifter is made of some very hard steel too.

[Skip Fix]

The plate does look pretty hard , figured maybe a cutoff wheel.

I never have figured why the factory even on column shifters did not have a neutral detent.My 97 truck if I manually pull it down going up a hill towing you can bump it into neutral as easily as OD.