Ford 8N Stuck between Gears

I have a 8N stuck between gears. I was in reverse and shift to 1st, and then jammed. Read alot of e-mails thus far seemly not a uncommon occurence. Tried to move the shift levers with no results. Short of prying on the shift forks themselves I"m concerned on how much force short of breaking something?
This sure sounds simple to just align the the shift pawls so everything is center and then replace the shift cover. Problem is nothing other than one of the pawls moves.
Any ideas?

When I put my shift cover back on, it got stuck between gears, too (actually, would shift into two or three gears, but not the rest). Turns out the short end of the shifter will go in two different ways. One works, the other doesn't.

Might, or might not be your problem...

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(quoted from post at 18:27:42 08/29/08) I have a 8N stuck between gears. I was in reverse and shift to 1st, and then jammed. Read alot of e-mails thus far seemly not a uncommon occurence. Tried to move the shift levers with no results. Short of prying on the shift forks themselves I"m concerned on how much force short of breaking something?
This sure sounds simple to just align the the shift pawls so everything is center and then replace the shift cover. Problem is nothing other than one of the pawls moves.
Any ideas?

Click to expand...

Push clutch in (disengage), jack up a rear tire, jiggle tire CW/CCW while prying on shifter forks. May even have to stick a bar down to the offending coupler(s) an tap it with a hammer.

Just a quick thott. You MAY have some worn parts.

Been put'n together sum test pix fer y'all gear jammers,,, wash'n chines and chit like that have slowed down my progress,,, in these pix i did not know at the time first gear shift fork was bent,,, so the shift rail fer 1-3 will b a little forward then it should B (made a post bout it a week are so ago) here goes hope it helps
Neutral


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1st

3rd
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Now i can not find 2-4 gear pix,,, but put it in neutral and align 2 or 4 in the middle to see were the shift fork should B,,, nutter thang to take a good look at is the shifter,,, fist pix a really worn out one
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Now a really nice unmolested shifter


Now a nice fit'n shifter and pin with the correct EZ 2 install boot,,, not the wrong boot folks fight to git on
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EDIT
Fergot,,, the reverse and 2-4 shift plates when in neutral will b level, not rocked to the back are front,,, if one is rocked either way its in that gear,,, go by the numbers to see the gear its in,,, look at the shift coupler for 1-3 gear,,, the big gear on the top shaft is 1st,,, the next one up toward the front is 3rd,,, next is 2nd and the front gear is 4th

When 1-3 are in neutral the shift coupler will b centered on the shaft tween 1-3 gear and not favor either gear

Edit one more time,,, if the 1st gear shift fork looks like it has rubbed on first gear you are in sum deep chit,,, the fork is probably bent,,, the main shaft and first gear are toast,,, mite also have a problem wif the clip that retains reverse,,, clip comes out of the grove, lets reverse gear force the reverse fork back and push on 1-3 shift fork, not good

One thang I need to tell bout the link,,,, did not find this out till after I installed the trans,,,, 1/3 shift fork was bent,,, you can tell by the notch in the 1/3 shift rail is a tad forward,,, I though it was I did not have the detent ball set rite in the neutral slot,,, big fudge up that I did not catch the bent fork,,, was even hard to tell once I got it out,,, for the record I can replace the fork wif out a split,,, trick of the trade,,, hummm mite just add that to the old post,,, least I don't smoke around gas