My 70 maverick was running and driving great, no problems with shifting, etc. Suddenly during a shift the car lost the ability to shift. My mechanic says the column is bad, says it is common with these cars. Should i just look for a used column, does anyone on the board have one? I have seen some talk of converting to floor shift, not sure what the best option is. any advice appreciated. I want the car reliable, we were supposed to take it to the Syracuse Nationals next weekend, doubt that will happen now.
Years ago, I remember my friends column shift in his truck would get stuck occasionally. We would pop the hood and yank on the linkage to free it up and it would work fine for a while. The joy of old cars and worn parts.
my mechanic already removed the column and said it is no good, something inside came apart and he says it is unlikely to find the parts to fix, recommeded finding a used one.
is there a fix, or should i abandon the column? Craig, do you have one? Has anyone tried the conversion kit for floor i see in the autokrafter catalog?
The first Maverick I got 35 years ago had what may be the same problem. The shifter moved but didn't move the arms at the bottom where the linkage to the trans hooked up. I took the column apart and found the shift tube(?) in the column was a 2 piece tube. One fitting inside the other and running down the column and out the bottom to the shift arms. There was a nylon type plug through the two tubes where they overlapped. I assumed this was a crush feature so the column would snap the nylon plug and collapse in a collision. I just tack welded the tubes back together. No more nylon plug, no more collapse if in a collision. Hope I'm remembering this correctly. 35 years ago is a long time ago....
I have some columns and/or parts....but they will not be cheap. Email me DIRECTLY (see below) if I can help.
The repair was exactly as fomocoboy said, weld the two tubes together and it works fine. Not quite a smooth as original, but useable.
