HD6G Shift Lever Problem

Hello all,

I just bought a HD6G track loader, had it dropped off at my house and it moved fine off the trailer just as it did when I went to look at it, I moved it from forward to reverse multiple times when I ran it at the previous owners house.

I moved it around in my yard a few times and after playing around for 5 minutes I went to put it in reverse. It won't seem to engage into neutral or reverse, the shifter seems to move out of the forward position and towards where it should be to be in reverse but I don't have any resistance and it won't lock into reverse. Regardless of the position I move the shifter the loader is in 'forward' as whenever I pull in on the clutch lever the machine moves forward just as it does when the loader is in forward gear. The lever feels 'loose' so to speak but I removed the lever and the upper connection seems to be fine. Is there any type of serviceable linkage that I may have messed up or that I can adjust ?

Thanks a ton for any help.

Mine had done that before my dad called it hung in high gear. I take the shifter out pour a little oil down the hole and take a flat bare and line the forks back up

I removed the shifter and lined the forks back up with a long screwdriver. It works for about 15 minutes of use and then seems to slip out again while shifting. We are trying to baby it but it seems no matter what it will get hung up between gears again.

The forks don't appear to be worn so I'm unsure what is causing the problem. I did top up the fluid for the transmission by adding gear oil in the reservoir as well as putting a small bit down on the forks to help the thing move.

I had a diesel mechanic take a quick look at it and he was unsure what's going on either.

Are three places that wear on shift mechanisms, the end of the lever itself, the slots in the shift rail/fork engagement point for the lever and the forks themselves where they ride on the gearing, with wear on one they will do OK, with wear on all three they can look fine but have enough clearance to fall away from each other.

Peer down into the area where the lever engages the forks, see if it appears to have room between the forks that could allow the lever to get between them, inspect the ends of the cast forks to see if there is wear there also that is allowing a engaged fork room between to allow the lever to fall away. Look at the lever tip, is it fairly consistent as to thickness, does it seem to have lost metal at the ends of the tip, all of which can lead to the lever falling out of slot.

Edited by DMiller - 28 Dec 2014 at 4:13am

Thank you for all the replies.

As far as shifter goes I have a shifter with a bend in it, not a straight shifter to respond to michale34's question. If we stay in just the high gear and reverse we don't pop out but when I move to the forward right to go into low gear that is when I seem to have problems with it getting stuck between gears.

The mechanic added a small bit of material to the end of the shifter rod via welding/grinding to try and keep it from popping out but it didn't help any. Nevertheless I'm sure the bottom of the shifter is no longer the problem.

Is there any way to replace the forks without dropping the whole transmission? I can only assume they are worn at this point, the pin and all parts I've had out looked pretty decent. If there was an access panel my mechanic is an excellent welder/fab guy perhaps there is something he could do. I really only need low gear, neutral and reverse so perhaps there is some way he can lock out the other gears.

Also, I will inspect the bolts on the tower as it is currently stuck out of gear/between gears. When you reference round spacer do you mean the rubber gasket piece? I have ordered a service manual but don't have it yet so I'm flying blind on what it should look like normally.

I have not done this but it looks like you do not have to remove the transmission to get the forks out.

fixing 5 , 7 , 9 and building up end of 6 solved my problems and that of 3 other machines I worked on .

it sounds like your issue is in the shift tower like Coke said. if you had a shift fork issue it should not get bound up in 2 gears or neutral. When you pull out the shift fork and reset the fork levers, are 2 of them out of place? if the problem was inside the transmission the fork levers would be lined up when you took it out. it does not take much wear to make them be out of line and do exactly what you are describing. Like Coke said there should not be any rotational twist in the shift handle.

Ok, that one doesn't work  I'll try again. Nope still won't work. it was a post started on April 26 2013. I added some pictures of an HD6 shift lever that was worn for discussion of different problems. Any way, HAPPY NEW YEAR ALL !!

Coke, Thanks for taking time to look into that post. So FYI I remembered that we had that discussion and I posted some pictures. I did an advanced search on my posts using AC Mel, found the post ,emailed the link to my email and it worked fine. I copied and pasted  it thru the hyperlink on the forum website and you know the rest of the story. But it still is in the system somewhere

http://www.allischalmers.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=69356&title=55-hd5-transmission-question

Edited by Coke-in-MN - 02 Jan 2015 at 12:04pm

remember any slop is modified in it's movement over a distance , so a couple 32nd inch play in bolts could be 1/4" at ball on shifter , it all needs to be tight and aligned 

An easy way to determine the amount to size up would be to measure the gate throat on the best shift rail at the point of least wear, give the shifter 1/32" at each side of throw or so, .030-.060 of clearance and should work like a champ. Main thing is to get the lever to sit and stay seated straight in the gates.