1955 TV rod connection at trans snapped off

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

I have a 1955 Convertible up on the lift.....tranny is real sloppy shifting between all gears....

I found the TV rod in the trunk....pictures show why it's in the trunk.....stud where it attaches to trans is broken off....can I repair this with the trans still in the car?....I'd take the side cover off to get at the repair?

Looking at the serial # of the trans says it's a series 86 commercial chassis !!....does that effect the repair?

I have another 55 trans that I could take parts from....

Any thoughts?

Mike

[Bob Schuman]

I have heard of such failures before, and my guess is that someone misadjusted the throttle rod at the carburetor so bad that when the throttle was opened wide it tried to pull the arm past its internal stop and broke the connection inside the transmission.
If you can remove the side cover with the transmission in place you should be able to remove the broken parts and substitute those from your spare transmission. From what my 1959 Master Parts Book shows, the parts in your spare transmission valve body and the external arms should be the same as the ones in your car. The positioning of the external arm is important, but I do not have that data, only for the 48 through 51 models, which may be different.

[fishnjim]

Why don't you experiment on your spare first and see what's involved before you tear into the car?
The parts schematics can be gotten from places like Fatsco, etc. for free or maybe in the shop manual or online at oldcar manuals.   There were period motors manuals, etc that describes repairs also you might locate one.
If you have a lift or access to one, it be a whole lot prettier job than from the ground in a pool of trans fluid.   
If it was me, and the trans was "shifty" anyway, I'd be having the rebuild done.   Of course, that's a pocket book issue and I'm still fighting one that was so-called "rebuilt".   So pick your poison carefully.

[Mike Baillargeon #15848]

Why don't you experiment on your spare first and see what's involved before you tear into the car?
The parts schematics can be gotten from places like Fatsco, etc. for free or maybe in the shop manual or online at oldcar manuals.   There were period motors manuals, etc that describes repairs also you might locate one.
If you have a lift or access to one, it be a whole lot prettier job than from the ground in a pool of trans fluid.   
If it was me, and the trans was "shifty" anyway, I'd be having the rebuild done.   Of course, that's a pocket book issue and I'm still fighting one that was so-called "rebuilt".   So pick your poison carefully.

Jim, I took your advice and took off the spare trans cover to see what's involved in that TV rod arm.....

It looks like when the throttle opens up, this lever pushes a valve open inside the transmission......It looks like it would be very involved to remove that rod and replace my broken one....

I went back to the car with the broken transmission on the lift and tried to move just the stub of whats left at the break......I was able to use a small pair of vice grips to grab and gently turn that stub to close that valve inside the tranny.....or trick the tranny into thinking that the throttle isn't wide open....

Bob was right, somebody pounded on the throttle of a miss adjusted TV rod and broke it off.....

Test drive is next...I'm hoping the trans shifts a little better than the 2 to 3 second slosh between gears I had before....fingers crossed....But there's still no way to connect the TV rod....

My spare tranny is of unknown condition,...so I don't really want to swap it in to the convertible..

Thanks guys for the help

Mike

[55 ledsled]

Very involved indeed to replace the rod! I just re-welded the spot weld that failed on mine on and it works just fine. Took a bit to get it adjusted but it was an easy fix. I did post lots of photos on here of what I did as well.

[Eldovert]

That arm could have been knocked off when the trans was pulled/installed.
Don't ask me how I know ;(
Cheers,Pat MacPhail