My '77 4-speed is garage bound.  The shifter must be out of alignment, or something. The car won't move.  It appears to be stuck in reverse and some other gear.  I got under there and found that there is almost no room between the shifter mechanism and the exhaust pipe on the driver's side.  My wife tried moving through the gears with me watching underneath.  It seems as though the cogs don't move the reverse lever into its neutral position.  So the tranny must be jammed in reverse and some forward gear.  Anybody have this happen?  What do I have to do to get the tranny into neutral so that I can get it to a place to have the linkages adjusted???

Is the linkage hitting the exhaust when you attempt to go thru the gears?

hopefully you get some more specific info but my 55 truck with 3 speed would do something similar on occasions. see if you can manually move the shift points on the transmission close to straight up and down or where the shift rods at the shifter are aligned with each other. Pictures from Adams apple hopefully he will have more info later

Yep, Joel will have all the info when he responds, but in the meantime, pretty sure it is possible to have reverse engaged at the same time as a forward gear - used that trick to prevent the engine from rotating while I was installing something, with the driveshaft out of the car.  You should be able to remove the clips that hold the shift rods on to the levers of the transmission?  Once you do that you can move them all to the neutral position and get neutral that way.  Sounds like some work may need to occur on the shifter though....

A worn shifter, or out-of-adjustment linkages can cause that. You can get under the car, and move the linkages all to the neutral position, tho. It's a tight fit, but it can be done....I've done it on the road(and in parking lots) more than a few times.

Thank you for the help.  I just tried to determine how to move the car.  The shifter is in the neutral position, but when I started to let out the clutch, the car backed up.  That's OK, because I ought to be able to back it onto a tow truck.  I've got a local guy who has worked on the car, so I'll take it there.  It is just about impossible for me to see all the linkages.  The driver side exhaust (true duel exhaust) is blocking my view with me on the garage floor and the front end raised.  I think that it would be smart to have a shifter kit put on, since everything is really sloppy. My car has true 32K miles on it.  It was in storage, more or less, for about 24 years when I got it, about a year ago.  This did not happen while I was driving.  It started acting strange when I had it out a couple of days ago.  Now, in my garage, it's in permanent trouble.  I'm hoping that it is just the linkage and that nothing broke inside the 4-speed.  It's a Muncie Rock Crusher, I'm told.

Your topic $-speed is kinda funny. I'm sure you meant 4-speed but you probably hit the shift key as you hit the 4. You might be more accurate with your $$$. I hope it doesn't work out for the $$$ 

Then the trans is stuck in reverse, obviously. Only a couple of things can cause this. The reverse linkage is un-hooked from the shifter or trans end, or the shifter is just so worn out it allowed you to get it into two gears at the same time.
I originally thought you said the shifter itself would not move, and the car would not move, either, as it was bound up in two gears at the same time.
If it's just a worn shifter, you should be able to put the shifter itself into Reverse as normal, and then pull it back into neutral. How does the shifter feel when you go to reverse? Really loose...like something's not connected?


btw...the M22(rock crusher) is easy to identify.....because it sounds like rocks being crushed in a crusher when moving...thus the name....VERY noisy transmission...





|UPDATED|10/7/2013 10:10:48 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|

Yeah the tranny is very noisy, but feels very strong!  I'm pretty sure that the shifter is worn and that the reverse lever is stuck.  The shifter is very sloppy.  I'm gonna go under there again and see if I can get the reverse lever to go to its neutral position.  Then I should be able to get it into a forward gear to drive it to my local 'vette guy.  The shifter is probably gonna have to be rebuilt.

Afore ya crawl under there, give this a shot. Assuming your car still has the reverse/ignition interlock, which means you have to put the trans into reverse to get the key out, AND it still works, you can reach under the hood to move the reverse linkage and get it out of reverse. Not sure on your year model, but the older cars you could also do it from the seat, by moving the collar on the steering column, right behind the key cylinder. It rotates with the shift interlock.
If your's doesn't have that, then pop the hood, and look down below the brake booster, where the steering column comes thru the firewall, and connects to the gearbox. There should be a lever sticking out towards the center of the car, with a metal cable attached. This cable goes down to the reverse lever on the trans. Push DOWN on that lever, and the trans should come out of reverse.....



The pic below is for an automatic, but the lever & cable are in the same place for the 4 speed....



|UPDATED|10/8/2013 10:28:21 AM (AZT)|/UPDATED|