Vintage Cars: 1950 Chevy stuck in 2nd or 3rd gear?, shift levers, manual tranny

Question
My 1950 Chevy Styleline Deluxe is stuck in either 2 or 3rd gear. What could be the cause of this and how can I repair it?

Answer
If it is a standard transmission, and the only automatic was a two speed powerglide, so I think it is a safe bet you are talking about a three in the tree manual tranny, then the problem is probably in the shift mechanism in the steering column.  

In my 51 chevy, this would happen usually on the 1-2 shift.  To solve it I would go under the hood and manually move the two shift levers sticking out of the steering column so they are next to each other again in neutral.

Sometimes I would have to go to the transmission and move those two levers so they were in neutral.  

No real fix for this so it won't happen again except maybe rebuilding the steering column.  Just be careful when shifting and don't try to slide the lever between 1-2 or 2-1, but move it to neutral, go forward or backward in only that movement and then continue the shift up or down as needed.  What made mine hang up was when I would try to slide it between gears without making that Z shaped move.

If that doesn't solve it, then it could be something broken inside the tranny.  They aren't complicated, I could probably still field strip a 50's Chevy 3-speed in my sleep!

Don