9 speed gate detents question..2004 Eaton Fuller
 

It an Eaton Fuller 9 speed with LL range in a 2004 Mack Granite. The gate detents feel spongy..when cornering and going over bumps it sometimes difficult to find the slot into gear. I only have 2 days experience on that tranny. With other trannies I've felt a definite stop in the detents. With this one it's how much pressure is put on the stick. Any advice is appreciated.

...edited for correct truck year...

The truck has 50,000 city miles and has had 3 other drivers. With this tranny the slot has to be hit exactly and that slot is not at the end of the sideways travel of the stick. The sideways resistance builds, then there is the slot and then there is a little more sideways movement but with greater effort. Feels like the detents are coil springs.

Sounds like you may have a shifter linkage problem...

They can get pretty weak or completely gone with age. The school I went to had two road tractors - one was fine and the other had no detectable gate. They did this on purpose so we'd expereince equipment in good and barely legal shape and learn to deal with it. The range trucks were really wonky - one had touchy brakes, another almost no brakes, another smoked so bad the soot in the stack would catch fire about every two weeks :shock: .