stuck in gear?

[Bryan]

do you ever have issues with your bus getting stuck in a gear?  I have a 4 speed. What do you recommend? 

[jimsflx]

my 06 does it once in a while,i can usualy get it out by moving the shifter. only once that I had to pull over and go to back and pull the controls by hand. my cure is I am changing to auto in august. good luck jim

[wg4t50]

Sometines when the clutch starts screwing up, it will not release nice & clean. Easy check is shut down engine, see if it gets easier.
Dave M

[Bryan]

Jim, Pulling controls? What exactly do you mean by that? (Good luck with your automatic)

Dave, when we shut the engine down it doesn't seem to get any easier, what does this tell us? Thanks!

[wg4t50]

Is it 1 gear or is it stuck in two gears, when you let the clutch out, does it stall engine or try to move ?

If it tries to move, shut engine down, put some pressure on the gear shift as in trying to get to neutral and bump starter, it might jump out of gear.

If it is stuck in two gears, you will need to go to rear and move the levers.
Dave M

[Bryan]

Thanks so much! As far as I know it's stuck in 1 gear? How could it be stuck in 2? And how would you know the difference? Sorry if that question has an obvious answer lol. I'm not a mechanic :-)

[jimsflx]

bryan, mine has only done it in2 to 3rd. we are doing the auto change over in luthersvill,ga. how far are you away from there. it is abount 40 miles southwest of Atlanta. if your close come over to see it. good luck jim

[HB of CJ]

When I first got my old 1974 Crown Supercoach ex schoolie 40 foot 3 axle 10 wheeler, the infamous Fuller RTO910 was very hard to pull out of and engage into gear.  The clutch seemed to work OK.  When I got the old girl home, the first thing I did was find, identify, clean up and grease well the single large shift rod going from beside the driver all the way back to the top of the tranny.

There seemed to be many grease zerts that appeared to have never been greased up in the indefinite past.  Once greased up with just a portable manual pump type grease gun, the shifter required just about 2 to 4 pounds of pressure to place both into and out of gear.  The shift lever only moved about 2 inches total .... about 1 inch to place into neutral and 1 inch into gear.

Hope this helps kinda.  HB of CJ (old coot)

[Bryan]

Thanks HB of CJ!

Jim, I'm in top of North East GA. Just curious, what kind of costs and timeframes are involved in the change over? I've heard you loose gas mileage, is this true? I'd love to see it!

[TomC]

Just about the only transmission you can change to is the Allison V730. Voith and ZF make V drive transmissions, but the lack of parts support, I'd stay away from them. Yes, you'll loose 1-2mpg. But the ease of which the transmission makes driving, you'll have a big ol' smile on your face when you're driving. I drove for 1.3 million miles cross country truck with a 13spd. I changed the truck I drove to the HT740 Allison, and I wished I had that transmission when I was driving cross country. Good Luck, TomC

[gus]

To unlock - shut down the engine, have someone hold in the clutch while you go back and pull the one shift lever on the tran to match the other one which is sticking straight up. Almost impossible to do with the clutch engaged. As I remember you pull it toward the bus right side (Toward you).

You will then be in neutral.

Lock up is usually caused by not pushing the clutch all the way in, always happened when I got careless.

[chessie4905]

   Also make sure to grease the area in the rear where the bell cranks are. They pivot on a vertical shaft that has a grease fitting pointing at the ground at front side of engine on the bulkhead. You'll need a flashlight to see it when you are under the engine area.

[Tim Bookmiller]

I know on a 4016 -and I am sure your shifting assembly is near the same -in "the book"  instructions on how to set the bell cranks in neutral so they are aligned  then with trans. in neutral hook up rods so the pin just slides in

worked for me  make sure to have the grease gun handy some jerks there

[gus]

The zerk to the firewall shift/clutch bellcrank is at the end of a 2'+ tube. Unfortunately the grease in this tube hardens from heat and age so it is useless.

The bellcrank is accessible from the inside door over the engine, hopefully not permanently covered by bedroom cabinets. Apply grease liberally to it by hand, the only way to do it unless you remove the tube and clear it.

You will surely find the arms and link pins on this bellcrank severely worn which contributes to the shifting problem. Also the same with the linkage in the black hole under the driver's seat. Been there.

[Bryan]

update: the bus is at a shop now. They seem to have checked everything except the transmission itself. Someone else came to look at it and said the top of it was going to have to be taken off before they could diagnose the problem. The shop is now taking the top cover off (the one on the passenger side of the bus to the right of the engine) and he is going to have someone come look at it. That's where we are at now.