78 D150 won't shift out of park
 

Hello! I was replacing the shift shaft seal on my 1978 Dodge D150 A727 transmission over the weekend. I had a lot of trouble getting it off, so I finally dropped the pain and pulled the valve body out. I was then able to get the seal out (though it was pretty stuck still!) and put the new one on. When I removed the valve body, it basically just fell out after I undid all of the bolts. I have read where others had difficulty getting the parking pawl out, but mine came out with no effort. I put everything back together and the parking pawl when back in just like it came out, effortless. I then put a new filter on and put a gallon of transmission fluid in. I let it sit for 24 hours to make sure there were no leaks before I reconnected the linkages to the shift shaft. When I got home from work, I excitedly reconnected everything since there were no leaks! I then started the truck and I can't get it out of park. Before I did this project, it went in each gear just fine. Did I miss something with the parking pawl? I didn't feel it click into anything, but that is the only thing I can figure. Just wanted to throw it out there just in case before I do it all again. Thanks!

Sounds to me like the parking rod didn't make it back in its home?

I think you're right about that. I pulled the valve body back out and reinstalled making sure the parking rod clicked in. Now I can get it into reverse and neutral, but not drive 2 or 1. I reinstalled again this morning and all of the gears worked before I torqued the valve body. When I got home from work, it was the same thing, park, reverse and neutral. Very frustrating! Only think I can figure is that I bent the rod trying to take it out of park. Now when it tries to advance past neutral it cant. Any other ideas???

Sorry I dont know what else it can be.... Maybe the V/B was not sitting flat when you tightened it down?

Still having issues. I ordered a new parking rod thinking that I had bent it. It turned out that was not the problem. I put the valve body in the transmission without the parking rod installed and it still will not go past neutral. I tried filling it up with fluid to see if having fluid circulating in the valve body would help. Still nothing past neutral. It just jams up when I try to go into drive. I have tried both under the truck and inside of it. On the bench, the valve body clicks into all of the positions. I am at a total loss on what has happened. It easily goes into the transmission and I can't see anything that would keep it from changing positions.

From what you have said... I am kind of steered toward a linkage issue.... If you unhook the linkage from the trans lever, and you can make it klick and all 5 slots... then the shift linkage if binding up on something....