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Well I am getting my 51 200 with 3 speed trans sorted out and ready for a drive. I went through the brakes and am now confident that she will stop. Also my hat is off to the fellow who figured out that you could install the brake fluid tank on the firewall. Old cars are a lesson in history of design. Anyway two issues. Are the first gear non syncro, or is mine worn? Trans shifts good, and drives fine, but when I am off the gas going down a grade in second it jumps out of gear. Is there an external adjustment to stop this? I have replaced the tranny 90 weight gear oil already.

First gear is non synchro. The thinking was (and is) that if the car was rolling at all, second gear would do just fine and there was no need to shift to first.

As to jumping out of gear, if the usual culprits like linkage adjustment and rotten motor mounts are taken care of, then most likely the mainshaft of the tranny needs attention. That has several gears on it that are mounted on preloaded bearings. The preload is maintained by a swaged-on retaining ring. Violent shifting and other accidents will distort that ring, the preload is lost, the gears wobble on the shaft, and the tranny jumps out of second as you go down hill. If you take the top cover off your trans and can wiggle the second gear from the front--which happens to be second gear-- then you have lost your preload. When the wobble is not too bad, I have reset the preload by merely cold working the retaining ring back firmly into its groove with a punch and hammer. It has been quite OK for the last 40K miles on my 51. Sadly, you have to take the trans completely apart to get to that ring.

Thank you for your insight. The linkage seems to be crisp, and has fluid movement. Better than many collum shift cars that I have had in the past. I will sort out other things before I Pull the tranny. That's a big job that can wait if I hold the gear shift when needed for now. I have been servicing the brakes, and E brake. This car had a lot of work done about 20 years ago, and it Looks to have sat for years. The engine is fine, suspension needs attention. Rust is just getting bothersome I think the fuel gage/sender stopped whole I was working on the brakes. A bit of a hobby car.