1931 Model AA shift lever rotates
 

So, I'm new to the forum and new to model AA's. I saw one and liked it so much that I looked for one to buy and picked one up last week. Now I'm getting a crash course in Model AA trucks. My truck is as close to original as can be. It has a 1931 engine, but a C head with three bolt water pump. The issue I'm having is when I test drove it I noticed the shifter lever would spin in a circle. It shifted in all 4 gears, but the lever was all over the place. Yesterday, I pulled the trans tower and was glad to see the gears all in good shape. I used a magnet on a stick and put it deep in the trans sump and didn't see any metal filings or chips. I did notice that the oil was 90w gear oil, but I'll drain it and put in the right stuff. The shifting tower looks like a pin is missing that goes through the pivot ball and into the shifting lever, letting the ball turn on the rod. Can I just use a 1/8" roll pin to fix this? Or, is there a special part? Thanks

Re: 1931 Model AA shift lever rotates
 

Here is a link to the AA site andsome information on fixing your problem.
http://forums.aa-fords.com/viewtopic...it=shift+tower

Re: 1931 Model AA shift lever rotates
 

Here is a link to a video I made on repairing the AA four-speed shifter a few years ago.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL...E4m50cDoDpBOJh
My transmission is the early one with two plns. It looks like yours is the later one with only one pin make sure that pin doesn’t fall inside the transmission when you reassemble.

Re: 1931 Model AA shift lever rotates
 

And you remind of my father's story of going on a date in a Model A car - pulling up on the shift lever allows one to "swing" the gearshift "out of the way" to pay closer attention to one's female passenger.



Joe K

Re: 1931 Model AA shift lever rotates
 

That's funny Joe K. My Dad told me a similar story of a double-date with my Mom, and her brother with his girlfriend back in the forties. He purposely removed the steering wheel nut and while driving straight, pulled off the steering wheel and said "now what?" It scared the "you know what" out of the other people. I'm surprised there was still a second date. I guess he got the idea from Laurel and Hardy.
Anyway folks, thanks for the inputs and I did watch all the videos. My trans tower is the newer version and the pins are captured after assembled, so I don't know how the pin to secure the pivot ball to the lever rod was missing. It's a blind hole and the outside end is against the female socket in the tower. I think maybe someone forgot to put it in and the truck wasn't driven enough for anyone to notice. The story was that someone with a large collection of vintage cars owned my truck and when he passed away, the guy I bought it from, got the estate and took a long time to sell them off.
What I ended up doing to fix, is lining up the holes in the ball pivot and shift lever. I then pressed in a 3/16" roll pin until it bottomed out. Then I used a Dremel to cut off the outside of the roll pin and smoothed out flush with the pivot ball. I didn't want to use a hardened dowel pin because with a blind hole, I wouldn't be able to get it out again. I can always drill out a roll pin. Looks like this is the ticket, I can't wait to get behind the wheel! (it's bolted down LOL) :eek:

Re: 1931 Model AA shift lever rotates
 

I used to tell the Model-A-uninitiated that engaged the overdrive. ;)