Hey all, like the title says, my shifter handle takes quite a bit of effort to shift from P to D to R, etc and going all the way back to "L" manually takes some muscle and it just hits the shifter plate. I was wondering if there was an adjustment on the shifter itself to loosen it up? I visually inspected the shifter cable and it seems fine. Any ideas let me know. Thx.
Did you disconnect the cable from the shifter? Just to determine which one is the problem? I had a hard to shift cable and ignored it. It rewarded me by breaking while at work. I actually had to run a coat hanger down the cable housing so I could shift it and get home.
Man, with all that online stuff makes a guy go stupid and forget to use the brain, lol. I am working on getting the starter replaced later in the week and will disconnect the cable on the transmission side to see it the shifter handle would move easier (that way I don't have to take the console back out). Thanks!
Good idea Old. Wish I had thought of that coat hanger idea when mine broke. I had it set in drive position and had to start it in gear and stop where I could always go forward.
Ramair68, if I recall, the failure is internal to the cable. A stranded steel cable is within a sheath. As the strands start to break internal to the sheath it gets difficult to move prior to total failure.
I've replaced mine a couple times over the '68's life because I enjoy shifting it even though its an automatic. I even keep a spare cable for the next time one fails.
Thanks, I already have the cable. The one that's in there is the original so that is probably the issue. If it's internal to the cable than a visual won't do.
I had a 71 LeMans in high school. Cable froze up. I replaced it. 2 weeks later froze again. Checked alignment, verified routing and lubed another new cable. Froze again 3 weeks later. Talked to an old GM mech and got half way through my story and frustration and he just started nodding his head up and down. After I finished he said "check your ground strap". Two weeks before I lost the first cable I had jacked up the engine to change the oil pump. There was a ground strap between the fire wall and engine that I had pulled free. Some lessons you never forget, hope you get it fixed.
Thanks all for the help. It was the old shifter cable that caused the problems. I installed the new one today and I have a good manual shift and going all the way to "L" the lever moves without any excessive force.
I did see a couple of brackets on the transmission tunnel during install and was wondering if the floor shifter cable goes between the brackets or anything? For now I just routed it to the TH400 lever and attached like it was.
I was able to find an NOS one. The issue I found is all cables for our cars seem to be different lengths. The NOS was exactly the same length the original one. 27". Most are between 29.5 and 32". Not sure what that would do. I also heard to not buy the OER one. Not sure if that helps and it's just my opinion. Check eBay maybe another NOS will turn up.
I think if mine fails again, I will save the broken part and see if I can restore it. Can the stranded cable be replaced within the other parts? I don't know.
I got the idea from my weight machine which has a number of stranded cables. Over time, the cables fray or brake as the run around a series of pulleys. In the past I have had new cables made and made my own with new cables and hardware from at ACE Hardware.
Best place to start would be a bicycle shop, I've seen them make their own brake cables, etc. History suggested to replace the shifter cable every 120-140k miles, I doubt I'll ever need a new one putting around 2k miles on my car a year, lol.
