4520 stuck in 3rd gear 2003 tractor with 866 hours

[bradheiter]

At the end of baling 750 small squares I backed up to the last hay rack to move it to the barn and I couldn't shift out of third gear. The range selector worked normal along with forward and reverse. No funny sounds, just stuck it third, if it happened baling it would have made it impossible to get the correct ground speed to get it done. Called the dealer and his advice was the detent was "acting up" and I should have someone pull on the shift lever while I hit the arm at the transmission with a hammer. I asked if he was sure about that advice and he assured me that they do it all the time, I SHOULD HAVE KNOW BETTER, but I tried it and nothing good happened. So I called Branson's service department and still don't have a call back from them, 2 days and waiting. Anyway, I went back to the service manual and parts book and it looked to me that if the trany was engaged in a gear it has a detent system to make sure it can't engage any other gear till removed from the gear it's in. What I found was that when you move the shift lever to the right you engage a lower lever that lets you pick between 3rd and 4th and if you move it to the left you engage a lower lever that lets you pick between 1st and 2nd. As far as I can tell, when I shifted into 3rd the lower lever for 1st/ 2nd moved out of position enough to lock the shifting system. All I did to fix this was pull the rubber boot on the shift lever out of the way and move the 1st/2nd lever a little bit towards 1st and then it shifted out of 3rd normally. As I moved the 1st/2nd lower lever, it seemed to snap into position, like it found it's home position. BUT, I'm very sure that following the dealers "force it advice" I did something to make the 3rd/4th lever come out of alignment with the 1st/2nd lever when in neutral, atleast that was a simple adjustment of the turn buckle in the shifter rod. 8 hours of use latter and every thing is fine. Hope nobody ever has this happen but if it does maybe this info will help.
BradH

 

[Stimw]

It's actually a common problem with some transmissions. I saw it a few times with VW's.
When the linkage gets warn it will let the detent pull back into gear when going from one shift rail to another leaving a transmission in a gear and also neutral.
I used to run offroad VW dune Buggies and it would happen when shifting too fast with a worn trans.
I figured out how to put a screwdriver in the trans oil fill hole and pop it back into neutral.