When I put the car in drive, it takes off in second gear. When I manually shift it down, then it takes off in 1st gear.

I know that the kickdown lever is not hooked up right, which I am in the process of replacing, but from what I read it doesn't necessarity have to do with the problem of taking off in first gear

Any suggestions?

 

replace the shifter bushings and adjust the shifters linkage also how is your tranny mounts?

 

I recently did change my shifter bushings, and I'm not sure I did it right because I had to readjust it just to get the car moving.

How would I adjust the shifter linkage, ie. do I need to make sure it's pushed one way or another, or something like that?

I don't know about the tranny mounts, I'll have to check them later.

 

there is a bushing on the tranny side of the linkage iirc and the mount or even a motor mount can be bad causing problems sine it could be pulling on the linkage because of the mount being worn

 

what year car?

depending on what year, you might have the shift pattern wrong. on a 66, theres 2 dots. one plain one and one with a green dot. the green dot is DRIVE. the plain white dot is only 2nd and 3rd. (for whatever reason, i think its for rain).

 

+1

A lot of people confuse the two. And yes, the 1st gear lockout makes it easier to drive in the rain without spinning a tire.

 

Mine's a 65. That could be a possibility because I changed out the shifter cover. Is the green dot position next to neutral or two after?

 

green dot is 2 DOWN FROM N. which is 1 ABOVE LOW (1st)

 

THAT WOULD EXPLAIN EVERYTHING!!!!!

Hopefully that is what it is and there is no problem. So now I can waste my money fixin something else.

So the correct order is PRN(2nd)(Drive)L.

I couldn't find this info anywhere. Thanks.

 

yes that is correct man. and in 67 it changed to PRND21. which is what someone had put in my 66. but now i just picked my tranny back up cause i had it rebuilt for a full manual reverse valve body.