1983 Eagle Transmission Selector Stuck

[vdubn]

I just picked up an 83 Eagle last night, and it starts and runs good, but we had an issue trying to move it, where it appeared to be stuck in park.  The car had a B&M aftermarket shifter connected to the transmission, and the cable was broken, so we figured that was why we couldn't pull the trans out of park.  I pulled the B&M shifter off of the transmission, disconnected everything, and no matter what I do, I cannot get the selector shaft on the transmission to shift through the gears. 

We tried to push the car, and it wouldn't move, again, thought it was stuck in park.  Removed the rear driveline, and loaded it up on the trailer to get it home.

Today I removed the skid plate, and the front driveline to get a better look at the selector shaft, and still, no matter what, I cannot get it to rotate.

My friend grabbed the rear yoke coming off of the transmission, and it was tough, but he was able to rotate the yoke.  Wait, what... I thought it was stuck in park, and why couldn't we get it to roll yesterday?

So, we moved to removing the transmission pan, and inspecting the selector shaft, and it all looks good, but its totally stuck.  For the next step, I am thinking of dropping the valve body off of the transmission, but wanted to check with some folks here and see if anyone can think of anything else that could cause the selector shaft to be stuck.

After doing a bunch of research, the valve body is the same as the 727 valve body, so I was wondering if a bunch of check balls will fall out if I drop the valve body... just don't want to lose any parts, etc.

Thanks for any help that anyone can provide.

 

[mudkicker715]

The transfer case could be stuck in false neutral. Meaning it is between 2wd and 4wd.

[vdubn]

Well, I figured it out... crazy, but it turned out to be a stuck detent in the transmission valve body.  I removed the valve body, checked the parking pawl, and it all looked good, but even with the valve body out, still couldn't rotate the selector shaft.  Ultimately, I stood the valve body on its edge, and hit the selector lever with a hammer 2 times (not super hard, but a couple good hits), and it broke free.  Once free, it worked perfectly.

I reassembled the transmission, added new fluid and filter, and it drives awesome... even though it had a pile of shavings in the pan.  It runs and shifts great.

I looked, but couldn't find any write-ups that mention the Torqueflight transmission having issues being stuck in park, so its really strange.  This Eagle has been sitting since 2012, so maybe that was part of it.

[vangremlin]

Glad to hear you're back on the road!  Thanks for sharing the solution.