No reverse !!!! WTH!

Just put in a new steering colum for my 1972 Ford Maverick 6 cylinder automatic trans and now my car won’t go in reverse but it does go to all other gears can some one help me out ... thanks to all my Mavericans lol

 

it goes to park but no reverse?

 

Yes all gears except reverse and before that it was working great

 

Unless the linkage is misadjusted causing a a between gears problem, there is no reason swapping column should cause loss of reverse or any other gear.

 

I would jack car up and disconnect linkage at transmission and manually shift it through the gears by hand, it should click into the gears and you should be able to feel it. Put it in reverse on transmission arms and put shifter arm on column in reverse and hook linkage arm back on transmission. You may have to make some adjustments to make it go correctly. As Krazy Comet has said no reason to lose any gears from a column swap

 

Is there any electrical component connect to the steering colum that can effect the trans ? And the guy I bought it from said it’s out of a 74 now but when at first he said it was out of a 72 and it fit just right. Thanks Krazy Comet and Yellow75. And if you Mavericans have any other ideas please let me know thanks

 

Nothing electrical that effects the gears just a neutral safety switch and reverse back up lights, I cant state for sure that there is no difference in years of columns that effect the gear selection

 

Thanks for the help guys I’ll keep you updated on the situation thanks again been a help

 

Hey guy no luck idk what’s going on but I have no reverse what else can it be I also changed the speedometer wire can that have an effect on it

 

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long shot...fluid level OK?

 

Thanks i was going to change trans oil

 

how many miles on transmission?

 

So you did try disconnecting the linkage and shifting it by hand and it did not work? Also the speedometer will not affect it.

 

In 50+ years, I've never seen any transmission have forward gears and not reverse(or the opposite) and fluid be the problem. If it's low enough not to have reverse, you ain't moving forward either('less maybe your buddy, wife, etc is pushing). There is a point in fluid level where trans may try to move forward and not move backwards, but it'll slip like crazy in the forward gears.

As already suggested check the transmission detents, if you can't find reverse, it ain't there.