Cannot shift into Reverse (3 speed fluid drive)

[Hammy]

Hi everyone, I am a the recent (and lucky) owner of a 1950 B-2-B. It has the 3 speed fluid drive and I can not get it to go into reverse for the life of me. 1-3 work fine but when going into reverse it clunks and/or grinds when letting out on the clutch or even with the clutch fully disengaged. I have looked underneath to see if the linkages are adjustable like I saw in one of the posts here, but they are solid bars from end to end. Any advice would be appreciated. I plan on taking a deeper dive this upcoming weekend.

[1949 Wraith]

Can you shift into reverse when the engine is not running? If you can maybe there is not enought clutch clearance on release.

 

If that is not the case try lubing all the pivot points on the linkage and check for extra slop due to wear or missing bushings.

[JBNeal]

additional information - column shifter adjustments

[PaulB]

My D34 car will do that sometimes if I try to rush shifting into reverse. I've found that as the car is over 70 years old it prefers to do things slowly and deliberately. Also doing it with just a very slight roll instead of dead stopped seems to work better. Then there are times when I've pulled up to a parking bumper and it won't go, I have to put the car in 1st and get it to roll up in the bumper just a little to get gears the gears to mesh instead of hitting tooth to tooth. 

[Hammy]

Thanks for the information! Hopefully I'll get it figured out this weekend and I will give an update.

[Hammy]

Hey guys, so I got to work on the truck today got her more or les idling smooth and I tighter up that adjusting nut on the column shift. I have a question about my gear shift pattern. From what I can tell every single car and truck that had a 3 speed on the tree is,  pull towards you and up is reverse and down is first. It seems that this is my second and third gears. Leaving the shift lever in the at rest position and going up is reverse and down is first. Is there something wrong here? I can’t seem to find any info about this in the B1/B2 service manual I have. (This is the first time driving the truck so it caught me by surprise with this shift pattern. Would probably also explain the grinding happening when I thought I was going into reverse in the normal pattern way)

[1949 Wraith]

Pulling shift lever towards you and up is reverse, towards you and down is first, at rest and up is second and at rest and down is direct or 3rd.

 

Maybe someone has reversed how the linkage is hooked up?

[kencombs]

There are two levers on the trans.  One moves the mechanism for all gears..  The other is the 'selector' that determines which gears the first one moves, L/R or 2/3.  I'm not familiar with that particular linkage layout, but it is possible that the selector lever could be upside down at some point, especially if it has an intermediate relay point, like a bellcrank.

[JBNeal]

additional information - B-3-B & B-3-C Driver's Manual

[Dodgeb4ya]

Maybe you tightened up the gearshift adjuster rod nuts too tight...

That's why difficulty shifting into R/1st.