No shift (cables maybe?)

[soloyosh]

Hi,

First post, but have been lurking for years.

Went to drive my 89 to work today. Put it into reverse and backed into the turnaround in my driveway. Went to put in first gear and the shifter would only move forward and back (not to the left or right). I felt it go out of reverse. The fore aft movement has virtually no resistance and it does not select any gears (the car is in neutral regardless of stick position). It feels like the cables fell off. Does this happen often? the car has 123,000 miles on it. When I get home, I'll look under it and see if I can spot anything. The car has been hibernating for about a year. I parked it because it was due for it 120k service and I didn't have the resources to do it at the time. Now I am taking a temporary position in Milwaukee, so I am going to take it to Performance Plus to get the necessary work done and use it for my drive up there.

Any input on the shift thing?

Thanks

Brett
1989 SHO
1988 Fiero (V8!)
1988 Fiero Formula
2002 Nissan Altima

 

[Anthony1238]

Look between the oil drain plug and the exhaust... there should be a ball joint and a boot that connects to it... It might have fallen off... if it's disconnected just push it back on the ball, you might want to use a zip tie or a piece of plastic around the ball then pushing it back on to make it stick more, this happend to me a bunch of time, if it is the problem it's an easy fix...

 

[Gez89SHO]

Also check the cables at the shifter end. Carefully pull up the plastic around the shifter (it unsnaps but can break), remove the 4 screws holding the shifter boot on, and you'll see the cables.

 

[munkee]

I would bet that the problem is on the shifter end of the cable. Same thing happened to me less than a week after I bought my 91 plus. The connector was actually broken so I had to replace the cable.

 

[soloyosh]

It was on the shifter. The "shift" cable had popped off its ball. I zip tie it back together. Anyone doing a rod shifter conversion that wants to get rid of thie cables cheap? BTW, anyone know the P/N for the cables?

Thanks
Brett

 

[Ace]

ive actually got a couple of cables just sitting around here not doing anything if your interested....shoot me a pm and we can talk

 

[munkee]

Aah. Yep that's what mine did. I zip tied and taped it until I could get around to changing it. I drove around for two weeks with the console off so I could pop it back on whenever it decided to come off. Did it once on the 4-5 shift going down the interstate. That was fun .