Howdy all...new to this forum and glad I found y'all. Recently purchased a 1967 Mustang coupe with 200 ci and 3 speed manual for a father and son project. We are by no means skilled mechanic but we are capable of following instructions and doing some repairs as needed. We have a ton of questions regarding this vehicle and repairs, so this looks like a great place to be. The car runs fine but after driving it for about 50 miles the shifter locks up in 1st gear. Son and I jacked it up and noticed the shifter linkage was loose with fluid leaking near the end of the linkage connection to the tranny. Tightened the bolts and the linkage freed up. Question is...how tight should those bolts be? Hope someone can give us input and suggestions...thanx!!!

 

That's not an uncommon occurance. The torque value is only 14-19 lbs/ft. To help stave off looseness you can remove the nuts, cleand the bolt and nut threads with acetone or brake cleaner, then use a little Lok-tite 242 (the blue semi permanent stuff).

Depending on which transmission you have there may be a an adjustment procedure as well that will aid in proper shifting. But if all is shifting well, I wouldn't get too excited about that.

Welcome to the forum!

Have fun,

 

Scott...thanx for the input and torque values. Guess I have to pick up a mustang repair manual soon. About to go to John's Mustangs in Houston to pick up a shifter rebuild kit and will do as you suggested with the bolt and nuts.

 

Got the shifter repair kit and installed w/o much difficulty. Made a world of difference. Attempted to tighten bolt from shifter linkage to tranny but any significant tightening locks the shifter. There is fluid leaking out of the connections on the tranny. (see photo). Anyone know of a special adjustment for this? Perhaps the linkage and bolts are missing something...thanx for your help in advance....


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There are "O" rings on the shifter shafts, and I'd be willing to bet the shafts are not correctly seated in the shift forks. Probably got pulled out when someone over tightened the shaft nuts.

You really need to get that service manual. Everything is in there with pictures. You two could fix it easy. You just need some good instructions. If you are near a county seat you can go to the library, They should have a good reference section of Manuals. You can copy out the section you need.

To correctly repair the problem you will need to pull the transmission out, remove the top cover and then reset the how the shift shafts are set in the forks. This is also a great time to replace those "O" rings (at a minimum), tail shaft bearing (if needed) and output shaft seal. Then you can run some nice synthetic to really free things up. Probably less than $100.00 for all the parts and to have someone replace the rear output shaft bearing. If you pulled it out Friday night (Couple of hours work), you could have it done and installed in time for the cruising hour! [8D]

OR...

I'm really singing the praises of a T-5 Swap, right now. Nothing like having five fully syncromeshed gears! You can pick up a T-5 pretty cheap. You don't need the Super Duper Wonder T-5, unless you are going to build a drag car. Probably do the whole thing up real well for about $1,000.00. Pull old trans out and install T5 on a Sunday. Have drive shaft modified on Monday, and back on the road in time for the Tuesday night "Grudge races" at the local strip.

OR... you could always bolt up a Top loader 4 speed. Should be a direct swap. One day, out and in.

Good luck,

 

Scott..thanx for the diagnosis and recommendations. I was at the local libraries this week and found several manuals to get us started. However, the ford shop manual was missing from the library (apparently someone removed it from the shevles w/o checking it out first). I'll be surfing ebay for a shop manual and other info/items for this project. Thanx again!!!

 

Some librarys keep the old hard back & bound "Mitchell" Manuals. Those were good too. The original Hard back "Chiltons" Automotive manual from that time frame are another set that contained quality information. Next to the original shop manual those are my next favorites.

I don't much care for these new Haynes, Chilton, etc manuals where Fred the back yard mechanic writes a story about rebuilding all the systems on the car. IMO, They are short on technical information, and more than once I've found some serious mistakes.
I prefer my manuals in a technical format (probably because that is what I was raised on), so I am vey biased this way.

Other's may have different opinions based on their experience, and you may find that their experience more mirrors yours. YOu may want to solicit their responses as to favorite manuals.