T15 Shift Pattern Is Opposite

Ok, I have a T-15 in my cj2a and I went to drive it after a long restoration/mod and the shift pattern is exactly opposite of what it should be.

3 1
2 R

How is this possible and have you ever heard this happening before? I did not do the rebuild, a third party did. What the heck is going on? Thoughts

 

Do you have three speeds backwards and only one forward?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

Is it column shifted?

 

I'll take a wild guess that the shift forks were transposed from one rail to the other.
I check into it and see if that is possible.
Best I recall from memory is that the T15 shift tower does require a special assembly procedure.

 

So its possible to reverse the shift pattern on a top shifted transmission? I've only ever heard of that happening to side shift when the arms were hooked up wrong.

 

I happened to have a T-15 shift tower handy for inspection.
Yes its certainly possible to mess up the T-15 shift pattern.
Apparently this particular tower was re-assembled incorrect.
The shift rails were interposed.
Meaning that the LH rail assembly was installed on the RH side and vice versa.

 

That'll certainly keep the thieves at bay...

 

You'll have to dissasemble the shift tower and re-assemble per factory instructions.
The T15 shift tower assembly instructions are provided in the 1972 AMC JEEP Technical Service manual.

 

Thanks guys. That's also what we came up with as well. Will be doing the reassembly sometime today. I took off the tower yesterday and compared it to a T86 and T90 and apparently its been rebuilt with the rails/forks on the wrong sides. Man, I've done reverse valve bodies on GM auto's but never thought it was possible with a stick. Big load off my mind. I will let you know how it goes. Thanks again.

 

Rails and forks are in straight now. We were thinking the T-15 may have been in a DJ.

 

DJs get blamed for everything! Kind of like the Russians these days

 

Got to have somebody to blame I guess.

 

Did early DJs come with manual transmissions? I've only seen mid-70s and up but they've all had automatics.

 

DJ-3A were the first DJs (1957?) and all had stick shift; pretty sure all the DJ-5s and 6s thru the mid 60s were standard shift as well. The postals started in 68-69 with the DJ5A. Postals had a variety of transmissions, but all were automatic. Some DJ5s, similar to the postals, were bought by the military and I'm not sure what transmissions they used.

Automatics or standard shift- they're still to blame

 

Indeed.

 

In England, manual shift patterns traditionally were the reverse of the American norm.

 

And everyone thought I was nuts. Pete, is the pattern the same as my shift pattern I had in the earlier posting?

 

I'm probably nuts too, regardless.
Honestly I can't recall exactly, and I may be wrong. It was fifty years ago, but I do remember it being confusing.

It was in about a 1920s Austin Seven - which was the cousin to American Bantam.

UPDATE/edit
I am unable to find evidence that England is different - maybe I'm recalling it wrongly, or perhaps it was the vintage of the car I was driving. Possibly it was the differenece between 3-speed and four-speed, which puts reverse and first in different places.

Add to that doing it left-handed and on the wrong side of the road.

 

Don't worry, they say the memory is not the first thing to go, so you are probably just crazy.

 

Pete, your not crazy! The Austin Healey BN1 from '53 and '54 (100-4 to those in North America) used a reverse-pattern gearbox. First gear is to the right and down, 2nd is right and up, 3rd is left and down, etc. Though this is a 4 speed transmission, first gear has a blocking plate to keep it from being engaged, with 2nd becoming the "new" 1st gear, making the box effectively a 3-speed, still with a reversed patten. The blocking plate can be easily removed to access 1st. The 1st gear was so low (coupled with a 4:10 axle) that the car only went about 10 mph in 1st gear, which is why it was blocked off. The stump-pulling 1st gear wasn't well suited to a sports car, and now as a 3 speed transmission, was less than ideal. Later Big Healeys starting around '55 got two different 4 speeds (depending on years) with a conventional shift pattern. A Laycock overdrive as an option was common on the back of the Big Healeys, giving a reasonable cruising gear.
-Donny