Leaderboard

I thought I’d chime in to share my success (thankfully) story. I could shift between 1st and Reverse, to 2nd if I was lucky, and to 3rd was ok. Going back to 2nd from 3rd was hit or miss. After reading the posts in this thread, I took the cable off. It was stuck and required a lot of pressure on either end to make it move. I hung it up vertically in my garage and sprayed penetrating oil and brake cleaner on each button and the 'collar' that houses each button. I let that soak a bit - then would press each side back and forth a few times. I'd then flip the cable around and spray the other button/collar to let liquid seep into the opposite end. After about 2 days of doing this on and off a handful of times per day, everything loosed up nicely. I can now make the cable move with very little pressure and it springs back into place without issue. I reinstalled the cable and we're back to normal. Thanks to everyone who posted!

As Paul Harvey would comment, and now the rest of the story....."90% of all ford pickups are still on the road today", the other 10% made it back home.

As others have said, the Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth/DeSoto flathead sixes have hardened exhaust valve seats from the factory, and they are very capable of handling modern, unleaded gas without any issue. They came that way starting in 1933 or 1934, and remained that way throughout all years that they were produced, which was well into the 1970's. So you don't need to worry about that.

Moparpro is a great place to way overspend on parts. There is nothing special about him.

My 51's vacuum line is routed similarly, across the head, Ian has a 40? Odds are they changed it.