1950 Mercury gear shift selector tube

[1MercMan78]

My shift lever jammed on the drive home this weekend and I had to have the car towed home. Started taking things apart following the overhaul manual and it looks like the "key" on the end of the tube is completely worn out. It won't engage the gears anymore. I have never worked on a column shift and I am having an incredibly hard time trying to find a replacement part. I'm also unfamiliar with how to remove and reinstall the tube. Can it just be pulled out through the drivers side without having to remove the entire column? I've been working on restoring this car a year and a half now just had the interior redone last week and now this. Can anyone help or point me in the right direction please? I'm stuck...

[1MercMan78]

heres some pictures of the top

[flatford8]

What part in your picture are you calling the “key”? .....I have no experience with Mercury’s but I have had my ‘51 Ford apart. Is it possible to fabricate the part you need to replace?
.........Mark

[rotorwrench]

I see them on Flea-Pay now and then. I remember getting one from a salvage yard when I was a kid. The only yard that has a mid century Merc was at an old yard just outside Dodge City, KS so we had to drive about 80-miles to get it.

If a person has welding skills, the worn nubs can be welded up and reprofiled back to size with the right grinders or files. It takes a while but it can be done. Yours looks like it has a problem with the shift arm pin hole to so that would take even more work.

The tube can be removed but it has to be shifted to neutral for alignment when it goes back in. It may get close to the headliner but the U-bolt that hold the column can be disconnected to allow a little movement. If it still won't come out then the floor cover plates would have to come out and at least two of the steering gear bolts would need to come out to allow it to swing down some. I don't remember having to do that though. It should just slide off the steering shaft & out of the column tube in one pull. The whole column tube can also be removed but that shouldn't be necessary unless there is a problem with the shift arms.

[51 MERC-CT]

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This is what the insert should look like.
The column will pull out by slightly rotating it until one of the lower engagement pins line up with it's shift arm then pull out so the next shift arm slot is aligned and allows the tube to be pulled further out. Then all the way out.