Gears won't catch

[fss106]

so i was driving home in 1st, came to a stop and went to put my 71 in low gear and nothing caught, so i went back to first and nothing caught, so i went to second and nothing caught.  so i sat there for five minutes like a jerk waving everyone around me flying through the gears until finally i got 2nd to catch and drove the whole way home in 2nd.  well i fiddled with it a little in the garage and currently all i'm getting is low (no more second) anybody have any ideas? i'd greatly appreciate them. i'm a modest mechanic and the only real issue i've had with my semi-auto before this was it wouldn't go into any gear once and that was just a simple wire that fell off the control valve in the engine. what should i be looking at? could it be a cold weather thing?

[bookwus]

Hiya fss,

I noticed your post over at the Samba.  Volkenstein had some good suggestions.  It would probably be worth your time to check them out.

One other thing does occur to me though.......................  are you sure your shift rod is properly connected to the transmission "hockey stick"?  If you look under your rear seat you'll see an oval access hatch on top of the tunnel.  Directly under that hatch is the shift rod connecter (which connects the shift rod to the transmission).  Check to see that the connector is doing its job.  As the shift lever is moved (back and forth and from side to side) the tranmission shaft (the hockey stick) should make every move exactly as the shift rod does.  If it does not, you have connector problems which could well result in the symptoms you are now experiencing.

Mike

1970 AS Bug