Shifting woes

[sho_dwn]

My SHO has started to do some weird stuff lately. The cable for the shifter keeps popping off when I shift. Usually it happens when I go from 2nd to 3rd gears. It pops off at the bottom of the shift lever. Upon inspection there is nothing visually wrong with it. It seems to reattach securely but after a few shifts it pops off again. It happened some time ago and then just went away. Now for some reason its doing it again. Has anyone had this problem before? Its an 89 with cable shift.

Alan

 

[SilverSHO]

Ah, cable shifter. Gotta love it.

I had a shift cable pop off the shifter last summer, and when I tried putting it back on, it wouldn't stay. Upon close inspection I noticed that the ring that holds the cable socket onto the ball on the shifter was cracked, and not able to do its job.

I don't know if there is anything you could do short of replacing the entire cable, which entails pulling back the carpeting, removing part of the center console, some extra hands, and a few choice words I had to replace the one that crapped out on me, and it was not fun, but it's not an all-afternoon job. Took me about an hour and a half with some help from my dad.