Mach 1 Club

After 8 months of working our our barn find we're finally beginning to take it out on test drives.

This is a 72 Q code car with the 4 speed manual and stock hurst shift.

In shifting through the gears, 1st and 2nd are no problem to find, but 3rd gear is hell to find. If I go far right and up it misses the gear and no amount of stabbing at it after a miss will find it unless I let the clutch pedal up and back down but then I get a gear grind noise I'd like to avoid.

If I do hit 3rd successfully then there's about a 1 in 4 shot that I can find 4th without double clutching.

Is there anything I can do to about this through adjusting/rebuilding the linkage?

Most likely the shifter is worn, or a combination of problems. Worn, loose, out of adjustment, even synchro damage in the trans can cause some of the symptoms you describe. Look up hurst shifters on google there are several companies that sell rebuild kits for your shifter. Thats where I'd start. Then check your linkages for worn parts. Also be sure to check the arms on the trans. A little slop in any one piece gets exagerated by the number of pivot points., and a little slop works into missed shifts or not being able to find the gears at all. Hope this helps. JTS 71 Mach1