Shifter gate adjustment

In neutral is the lever centered in the gate? Make sure your back up switch is not adjusted too far in.

Neutral is in the center and all forward gears are centered. I'll check the backup switch.

Is that the switch with the wires in the transaxle?

Yes.

You can screw the switch out for a test to see if it is causing interference. You should be able to back it out with out a lot of force.

The best position is where the switch just engages (switches) reliably in reverse.

Good luck.

Can you overlay the two plates? It is suspicious if the problem started when you changed plates.

If you are thinking about adjusting the linkage at the turnbuckle forward of the trunnions bushing, make sure you fix the shift lever in the canter of the gate with wooden wedges before you mess with the adjustment.

Much easier.

Rocky

Thanks for the tips. The old gate was worn with time, so the fingers were about half the normal size, which may explain the difference.

Jimiah, I had this happen with a Hall aftermarket shifter gate on a '73. The fix for that Pantera was to file or machine a complete 45 degree angle into the left side opening of the aluminum gate. That let the shift-stick lean over enough to find the missing gear!

I had the same problem, reverse but also with 4/5th gears. I was reluctant to start grinding away at the gate, but I´m glad I did. Such a difference it made. 4mm on each side.

Works great and looks ok

Looks like this is a common problem. I'll look at the grinder option. Thanks.

After reading other threads on this topic, I decided to get rid of the gate and the detent in the rear of the gate mount. Works great without the gate, detent and shift detents in the transaxle box fighting each other. You can get it all to coordinate but based on my experience, don't need to. Only need the transaxle box detents.

...I agree with Over50, Get Rid of the Gate, AND the Detent! It's Not needed and jams up the Shifting. The Gates are Inaccurate and work Against the Detent in the Transaxle! That is Why the side of each gate wears-out.
If You need a Gate to help you find the gears, you have not practiced your shifting enough, in My Opinion. The Gate was one of the first things, To Go!! And You can Install a Leather Boot.

What is to be Gained? Smoother, more Efficient Shifts! Instead of 'Feeling' the 'Gate Fingers', and the (In Cockpit) Detent, You Now Feel the Transaxle Detent and Syncros. Practice, You'll have No More Missed Shifts!

Sure, but you can´t argue with the classic good looks of the original style gate!
You can always remove it when going racing

Never had any problems on the shifter gate .
good aligment is the most important.

One big drawback to using the stock steel shift gate: the hard chrome plated gate fingers wear a slot in the softer shift-stick, due to vibration & combined spring pressure from both the ZF detent and the redundant shift-box detent. That's why we started cutting the fingers off stock gates, which led to vendor-made aluminum gate-surrounds. I've seen many severely worn shift sticks and a couple that broke in two during fast shifts. New shift sticks are not cheap!

One stock shift stick on a late model (GT5-S) was found to be made of multiple layers of thin steel edge-welded together, while Ford-era sticks are one piece. They interchange on any Pantera. Both kinds are unrepairable if broken. I've also seen the threaded knob end break off from drag-race shifting done poorly. Heaven knows what the ZF synchros in that car looked like!

If you have a badly worn but not broken shift-stick, it can be removed and repaired using TIG welding and stainless rod to fill in the worn area(s). Once ground down and polished, the ss weld area is almost invisible so rechroming is unnecessary. TIG is specified to keep weld heat low around the welded area, minimizing annealing of the steel and the blue color that comes from high heat.

I'm partial to the gates, they seem iconic to me as almost no cars come with gated shifters anymore.

No (or few) cars come with manual trannies any more.