plunger sticking out of case on superchief t-20

[lowlife]

Okay here is my story, I bought a non running 79 superchief this summer.
took it home cleaned the gas tank fixed a bunch of small things. had it running in a few days. my daughter was driving it when the right lateral suddenly had less travel then the left. the attex would still move forward just not as easily.
I notice the lower right side plunger now sticks out of the case about 1/4" when pushing the stick forward. the p.o. claims he had put new bands in the trans but his abilities are questionable based on other poor quality work I have found on some of his other repairs.
I am confident I can rebuild the trans myself. I look forward to learning the mysterious secrets inside the t-20
I just dont want to pull it apart for no reason. like most of us here I have plenty of projects waiting for me.
I did a search but didnt find an answer
so the question is: any chance the bands just need adjusting? I dont know if they were ever adjusted right in the first place. we where still getting used to driving it when this happened.

[Mike]

Since it was a sudden change in the lateral movement I don't think a band adjustment would help. I would first verify that nothing changed on the lateral, meaning that I would follow the linkage back to the T20 to make sure everything is fine there. If it is, then I think I would pull the T20 just to make sure a band didn't let go.

You could try adjusting the bands but by doing so, if a band has let loose, you risk ruining a drum which is one of the most expensive parts of the T20 to replace. If it just happened, it's possible that you can still save the drum.

There's always a chance that you pull it apart and find that nothing is wrong but that's not a bad thing. Plus, you finally get to see how simple the T20 is. The worst part to me is really pulling the transmission out of the machine. After that, it won't take you long at all to look inside and see if anything is wrong.

Good luck.