SMTA SHift lever

Drove the old guy out into the daylight for the third time in three years. My 966 is stranded in a field 8 miles away, roads flooded so had to press the SMTA into service baling. Went well for an hour or so and then I lost all shifting, stuck in reverse. Kinda hard to get loose of the baler with no forward gears.
But got it pulled away and backed it to the shop.
Got the 1-R rail lined up, it was jammed aft.
But it seems like there is excess play in the lever in the vertical. The"hole" for the cross pin is more racetrack than round. How much vertical movement is required? I would think barely any. I seem to have about 3/16ths up and down play.

Gordo

OK, very little up and down movement is right. My method of repair is , I use a steel bushing, 7/16 id and 5/8 od and only 3/16 wide. As the welch plugs that hold pin in place are 5/8 od that portion of the housing does not wear. Then I use a grade 8 steel bolt, 7/16 and long enough to get full surface on of bolt bearing in bushing, so it isn't on any threads, cut bolt off so a thin jam nut fits on. Grind nut as necessary to round it off and like wise the head of the bolt so shield on lever slides over head when moving lever side to side. Also may need new replacable pin in lever .Lock tite threads. Trick is to find that size bushing material as you want it to fit good. Probably won't last as long as it did new but then we may not last that long eiether.

I was working on a 400 shifter yesterday. I just went out to check the end play on several tractors including some SMTA's. 3/16 is about right.

The hole in the shifter lever has to be oblong to allow the lever to move laterally. I think that maybe the spring is shot and it permits the end of the shifter to move the rail just enough to pass the rail detent. When that happens, the shifter cannot settle back into the rail notch and, at the same time, is not permitted to return to neutral. The force to compress the spring should be about 50 lbs.

My current problem with shifters is that I cannot find any 5/8" welch plugs. I had to make my own by slicing off some 5/8 round bar wafers on my band saw. They are currently being held in place with RTV.

I am not using the shifter at this point. Plans are to connect it to either the sliding gear in the belt pulley gearbox or, with any luck, to a dog clutch that would lock the right hand bull pinion shaft to the differential carrier. This would give me a locking rear end.

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5/8 plugs NAPA # 219-1002. Unless they changed since the last time I bought a box.

I have a bunch of those 5/8 plugs. Got them at auto supply house. Let me know if you can't find any and I'll send you some.
Just came in from two hours baling. Just have the shift lever in place, no cover, no spring. Just a piece of inner tube over the lever and housing. Worked like a charm with just hand down pressure when shifting.
Man, going west into the sun. ths glare off the hood was terrible. Gotta scuff up the "Porsche" paint job Mike. LOL Maybe buy a PORSCHE bra and modify it?

Revisited this question again, just want to say I replaced several of the shift towers on 4 and 560 tractors when they were new as they went to an o-ring seal under the spring and a vent in the tower itself to help keep water out . This was done during installing final drive improvement packages. Well, these holes WERE NOT egg shaped. Not perfectly tight but very little up and down movement. Up and down movement allows the end of shift lever to crawl out of notch in fork and wear end of lever. Been there, done that.