Shifting question for mechanical gurus!
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Senior Member
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 209
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From: SE Wisconsin, Milwaukee Area
Shifting question for mechanical gurus!
Hello there,
This is my first post outside the Lightning forum. Anyways, below is a post I put there this morning... thought it would be good to also put it into the more appropriate forum. Any help you could provide would be appreciated!
As you may or may not have seen, yesterday I had a post about Winter beater cars... and that I had just bought a 1987 Ford Thunderbird so I can store the L in the Winter. Anyways, got the T-bird home last night. It runs good, most everything seems in great shape mechanically. There is only one thing that concerns me. The shifter stalk is on the steering column in this car. It is hard to move... I have to move it harder than should be normal to shift between anything... Park, N, D, R, etc. Is there some linkage that is rusty or cable that needs grease? Or could the tranny be low on fluid? Or is there something more insidious going on? Hey, I got the car for a thousand bucks, I figure there has to be some things that are wearing out on it... but I had to bit on it, new tires, exhaust, good body and interior, new brake pads, runs good, all lights, power options, a/c work, etc. Figure if I have to sink a few hundred into it I will still be in good shape.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
This is my first post outside the Lightning forum. Anyways, below is a post I put there this morning... thought it would be good to also put it into the more appropriate forum. Any help you could provide would be appreciated!
As you may or may not have seen, yesterday I had a post about Winter beater cars... and that I had just bought a 1987 Ford Thunderbird so I can store the L in the Winter. Anyways, got the T-bird home last night. It runs good, most everything seems in great shape mechanically. There is only one thing that concerns me. The shifter stalk is on the steering column in this car. It is hard to move... I have to move it harder than should be normal to shift between anything... Park, N, D, R, etc. Is there some linkage that is rusty or cable that needs grease? Or could the tranny be low on fluid? Or is there something more insidious going on? Hey, I got the car for a thousand bucks, I figure there has to be some things that are wearing out on it... but I had to bit on it, new tires, exhaust, good body and interior, new brake pads, runs good, all lights, power options, a/c work, etc. Figure if I have to sink a few hundred into it I will still be in good shape.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
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Joined: Sep 2000
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From: Mpls, MN
Senior Member
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 158
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From: port huron mi us
if it sat for awhile then the shifting rod has started to rust from the column to the trans. get some pb blaster and spray every moving part for the shifter. there only plastic bushings that hold the rod on.