VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND NEWER 1958-1960 Shifting and possible drivetrain problem

The car is a 1960 Impala Convertible-348 with Powerglide. Overall, it runs very smooth and everything looks to have been well maintained. I want my car to be safe and problem free, but am very concerned by the following two problems:

1. When shifting, the gear selector lever often jams and sometime jerks a bit or needs some juggling. It occasionally feels jumpy with a slight grinding-type noise. This mainly happens when shifting in and out of Park, and almost always occurs when shifting into Park (it rarely happens from R to D or vice-versa).

2. After driving for 25-30 miles or longer, the car often exhibits a bumpy, jerky-type reaction while reversing. It feels like it's bucking and fighting against backing up smoothly. Not sure if this matters, but it doesn't seem to occur on short trips or when the car is colder.

I'm baffled about this, and before I take it to a transmission man I would like to have some idea about what could be causing this. Anyone with knowledge of or has had these problems, your opinion would be genuinely appreciated.

Thank you very much in advance for any help.

Rich Primo

#1 - Sounds as if the shifter tube (inside of the steering column) needs lubrication. This will help. Peel back the little rubber boot that is where the lever sticks out of the housing. Squirt some WD40 into the housing at different directions with the most going down the column. This should help and it is a lot easier than removing the column and shift tube for re-greasing. Place some rags under the column so the WD40 can't get on the floor mat.
You can also lubricate where the lever come out of the column (under the hood)at the bottom end.

#2 - Normal. Some do it more than others but they did it when they were new.

Hi Chevgene - Thanks for the quick response. I will lubricate the areas you suggested, but if that were the problem, shouldn't it have affected the entire range of gear positions, as opposed to strictly the Park position? I've read that disassembling the steering column is tricky stuff, so hopefully I won't have to have the entire tube re-greased.

I'm surprised to learn that the bumpy, jerking effect during reversing would have been cleared to leave the factory with that problem. Mine seems to be pretty severe at times, so would you know if a fix is possible, or at least a way to lessen the extreme nature of it?

Thanks again for your help.

Best,
Rich Primo