I recently brought home an old 6 that we had on our farm when I was a kid. Sometime I will share the story with everyone.
Anyhow, mechanically speaking, this machine is in fantastic shape. The only item that seems to need some major attention is figuring out
why it won't go into 1st or 2nd gear. 3-5 go in nice and smooth. Clutch and Johnson bar operation is good as well.

Basically, when I pull the shifter to the left, closest to me, and try to put the machine in 1st or 2nd, I get very little movement of the shifter before it feels like it hits a hard stop.
It appears that something is froze up with the fork shaft that controls 1st and 2nd gear. I tried to put a little pressure on the shifter (not enough to damage anything) but it
just doesn't want to cooperate. I'm guessing there is limited access to the shaft/fork assembly without pulling the transmission?

Pending nothing is broken internally, does anyone have anything in mind for troubleshooting this issue?

I started to revive a 9u D6 that had sat 10 years. The rubber boot on the shifter was gone. Same movement as you have. I started pouring a bit of oil down the shifter every few days. With a bit of tapping it seemed to work. Had it moving to go into all gears. But the project has come to a stop as the engine I put on it is leaking water into the crankcase. Very disappointing as the engine had a anti freeze in it coming out of the donor, just sat dry a little over a year.

But do what you can to keep water from running down the shifter lever. New rubber boots are a good way to help keep it dry.

Seems one of the shift rails may be stuck or one of the detent plungers from sitting and probably rusting, You can access them under the cover on the side of the transmission. No need to pull transmission.

Ray54 wrote:

I started to revive a 9u D6 that had sat 10 years. The rubber boot on the shifter was gone. Same movement as you have. I started pouring a bit of oil down the shifter every few days. With a bit of tapping it seemed to work. Had it moving to go into all gears. But the project has come to a stop as the engine I put on it is leaking water into the crankcase. Very disappointing as the engine had a anti freeze in it coming out of the donor, just sat dry a little over a year.

But do what you can to keep water from running down the shifter lever. New rubber boots are a good way to help keep it dry.

Excellent idea, thank you.

Old wrote:

Seems one of the shift rails may be stuck or one of the detent plungers from sitting and probably rusting, You can access them under the cover on the side of the transmission. No need to pull transmission.

Thank you. I am also confident that something is just stuck. Glad to hear I can get to the rail/fork assembly w/o pulling the trans. I have ordered all of the manuals for this old girl, but they haven't arrived yet.

For what its worth. I have had several D6 and even later model D5 (basically same chassis) not shift as well. I would have to slide the lever left/right and try to loosen things up. Be patient with some lube and gently rock it back and forth, and then try forward/backward for first/second. Things tend to get sticky in there from lack of use and exposed to outdoors for lengthy time.
At least, I hope that is all that is wrong with yours. Good luck, and let everyone know how your progress is. JM

Since I'll end up dumping and changing all the fluids anyhow, I decided to use up a bunch of partial gallons/quarts of engine oil, pouring them into the transmission case so the oil level came up to the shift fork assembly. I'll continue to try and unstick this thing, keeping my fingers crossed it'll free up without too much trouble.

So, filling the transmission case full of 15W-40 engine oil did in fact free up whatever was sticking, and I now have all 5 gears! Definitely a sigh of relief.
After spending most of the weekend looking things over, it appears that the only real issues I have to deal with is a loose blade (make/renew some pins) and minor tin work before painting. It's amazing to me how well everything operates. I wish I knew the exact hours, but the meter appears to not be working.

Hi, Ortimber.
GREAT stuff, glad to hear it was so easy to get it freed up. Now go and enjoy it. That's an ORDER. LOL.

Just my 0.02.

Hello Ortimber, I'm glad your problem was solved so easily.
Here's an easy fix to posting pictures (or avatar), pics taken with the phone held vertically (portrait) will post sideways. Picture taken with the phone held horizontally (landscape) will post correctly.
Craig