detents?

[Madsen1970F100]

I have a donor with 360 and automatic transmission. When you move shifter into gear it does not "click" or show any evidence that it is in gear. You end up moving gar shift back and forth until it catches. Once folks on this forum advised it was an easy fix, to simply adjust the "detents"? Can anyone tell me how this is done?

[fordman]

here is what the shift linkage in and on the transmission looks like. those teeth yo usee on the linkage to the right are part of the detents. the other part (not shown) is a piece of spring steel with a roller on it. it rides in the detents and make the shifter lock or click into a cetain gear. if the roller has coem off of the detent you simply drop the trans pan and take the linakge and detent system aprat or adjust it so that it once again rides in the teeth of the shifter. go slowly study it make sure you only remove the large botls from the valve body when you take it out to get at the detent system.

[mmerlinn]

There are several possible problems there.

First, from 1966 thru 1971, the detent was in the valve body and not on the rooster comb. If someone has installed a 1972 or later valve body, then you will not have ANY detents, and there will be NO way you can adjust them. There is also a slim possibility that the detent in the valve body is broken or messed up. Solution in both cases is to install the correct valve body.

Second, starting in 1972, the detent spring was bolted in the case and the roller rolled in the detent notches on the rooster comb. The above picture is for a 1972 and later C6. If this is the type of C6 you have, then one of three things could be wrong 1) the detent spring is broken, 2) the detent is bent so it does not ride on the rooster comb, or 3) the detent spring is totally missing. In all cases the solution is to install a good detent spring. And there is NO way you can adjust the detent here either.

There is an outside chance that you may have some other problem, like a bent or broken rooster comb, but not likely.