holy cow! where'd my gears go?

[squirrel]

thats a good thought, but after a new oil filter the oil problems have cleared up and the car runs great.

basically the way it was, when it was in "thunk"-mode the shift positions for second and third now were reverse and first.  the positions for reverse and first still got reverse and first, too.  almost as if the whole danged angine and transmission jumped backward an inch or so and made it so the selector lever basically could no longer reach and engage second and third.

i'm going to get under the car this weekend and check out the motor mounts.  that's all i can think to do.

[David Pollock]

On your last several posts, you have mentioned problems with oil pressure and so on. The gear selector on your car is simply a standard 3 speed box, so gears cannot disappear. The torque converter, ahead of the gears, relies on engine oil pressure to do its job. No oil pressure, no torque conversion.  Are you sure the engine in your car has the correct oil pump for HyDrive?  These cars were almost trouble free so I suspect any problems are the result of mis matching parts during an engine replacement.

[squirrel]

this one's got me stumped.
ever since i've bought my 53 crandbrook hydrive, i've driven on it easy.  i have no illusions of it's 100 hp being a tire-smokin' monster.  but today i had to get on it pretty hard to merge into traffic, and when i romped on the gas in first, i was greeted with a pretty hefty "thunk" and accompanying shake of the body.    anyway, when i went to reach for second gear, it wasn't there.  neither was third.  i coasted into a parking lot and tried shifting while stopped.  nope, no second gear.   but third, now, was available. 
so, i had a great idea, got back on the road, and stomped on the brakes.  another "thunk" and shake, and lo and behold, second was back.
i've looked at everything, and i did a good visual inspection of the suspension when i lubed it up last week.
what is this madness?  as always, thanks for the help.