You might want to mention the year of the car, in case there might be some particular quirks to that transmission. For example, in 1952 Hudson made its own transmission, in 1953 Borg Warner did. And the linkages might have changed over the years as well.

I'm sorry. My Hudson with the shift problem is a 49 Commodore. It was an 8 originally, but was changed to a 308 Twin H Hornet engine back in the 80's. The person I bought it from believes the engine to be a 54. The transmission only has one shift lever on it. Hope that helps.
John

John, there could be a misalignment of the "cross-shift" mechanism in the transmission, that's letting it get into 2nd but not into 3rd. Try going through the adjustment procedure for the cross-shift cable and see if that fixes it.

Thanks Park. I looked up the cable adjustment in my shop manual. I have a local mechanic with a lift that lets me be in the bay with him. I will see when his lift is free and check it out. It is funny that last fall the tranny worked great, but not the first time out this spring. The local mechanic put some bushings in the shift linkage last week as it was very sloppy, but still not going into 3rd correctly. Will let you know how it works out.
John

Adjusted the cable yesterday. Put new bushings in the shifter mech also. Seems to be working. Will keep my fingers crossed.
John