1940 Transmission part missing?

[darren]

Oh my gosh you guys really helped alot ! Thank-you  very much! 
I ended up checking it out and ,someone once tighted the spring and nut and bottomed it out , I now know for certain from your pictures and directions that its on correct NOW! Happy Plymouthing!

[mvair]

The post by David Pollock is exactly correct. Below is a picture of the selector rod assessmebled to the transmission. The parts go together in the following order... small washer, spring, small washer, transmission lever, tappered nut, lock nut. I think these parts are still available NOS if you look. You could also improvise.

[David Pollock]

The lower rod is the selector which is actuated when the gear lever is pulled toward the driver. On earlier 40s a cable did this job. Later years put the adjustment up at the steering column end and ther is a spring over the threads to keep everything from rattling. I would assume this would be true of the 40 as well.  Gear lever position for the top link is adjusted ar the lower end of the steering column.

   This adjustment must be correct to allow low and reverse to be selected when the lever is pulled back, but not so tight that high and second cannot be selected when the lever is in its  "at rest" position. The selector does not move any gears, no damage can result from improper adjustment, but if you have the floorboards out, its operation is easy to observe.

[darren]

 On a 1940 3 speed manual  transmission. The rods that connect to the transmission. There Are two , one is fixed (top rod ) the other has a rod with threads on it,   @ 1.5 to 2 inches. and it has nuts to lock it in.  Is there suppose to be a spring to take up the slack? or would there just be nuts to adjust it in a fixed position? Thanks for the info DANiel