Lets start out with a little introduction first. My names Kaleb sometimes enjoy working on vehicles (when i know exactly what I am doing i enjoy it. Other times i can hate it) thats where this Blazer comes into play. It was a cheap cheap vehicle my Mother In Law decided to buy on a whim. Not even owned it a day and the gas tank had a hole in it and sending unit was bad. I didn't get the luxury of replacing this (luckily because i hate fuel issues). So far in order to fix this beast up i have had to replace Front ball joints, Replace all locks/latches, and ignition cylinder, water pump, radiator, Install a missing thermostat, Replaced a halfassed battery cable (they had 2 16awg wires as the main battery ground that connected into a 4awg cable near the motor. Basically this whole thing was a death trap waiting to happen. I also had to convert it from 4wd to 2wd. (She doesn't have a lot of money). The front axle is bad and making noise. Ripped the front drive shaft out and took apart the CV Shafts to keep the stub shafts in place (which i found out the hardway that they needed to be installed).

That brings me to the problem i found out about today. Her transmission won't shift into Reverse or Park. At first it wouldn't go into any gear. She had her friend mess with it a little and he played with the linkage and got it to be able to go into Drive and 1,2,3 (If it has all 3 separate gears i can not remember). I went and looked at it real quick last night before a snow storm hits us here. I crawled under and took a few pictures of the linkage and connection points. I did a little research on google and found some information about a bushing being bad/worn out on the linkage. Upon examining hers i can not find where that so called bushing would go. Some notable points is the darker rust spots on some of the connections.

Does anyone have any insight on what i should be looking at? I am not real familar with Chevys but i can change parts no problem. Afterall I have replaced a turbo and a few other parts on my friends Focus ST.

 

i had the same issue in my 93 s10 blazer, what really sucked about my situation is it was a offroad only truck and it only did it when i was on a steep incline. so if i got stuck halfway up a steep hill or almost over the top i couldnt put it in reverse to back up so either had to risk shutting it off and rolling back of have someone pull me up.

but yeah it was something to do with the linkage hitting something. have a friend try putting it in reverse and lay under there and see what its hitting. i think its that hole on the frame that wears out and makes it all sloppy

i eventually bought a cable floor shifter as my situation was putting me in some dangerous situations and didnt want to deal with it anymore

 

Thanks for the reply that is kind of what i was thinking aswell. She might have someone else come out and look at it today i am not 100% sure. After any amount of snow her appartment complex will never clean up the parking lot hopefully he can figure it out before i get a chance.

Would it be a dumb idea to take the linkage loose a little and try and adjust it more?

 

Someone else came out and looked at it and it was fixed for a few days. It happened again today. She ended up parked along 3 parking spots with no reverse. When i started pulling her out with my car she could not shift to park. After a few yanks with my car (just a little Focus with a Turbo) to straighten it out enough so she could legally park. She was able to shift into park but it would not shift the transmission into any gears afterwards (indicator in the dash showed it going into gears).

Anymore insight on what to look for? Can't even find any new linkage kits so a junkyard would probably be my best bet. And of course it had to snow today so it was a little cold laying on the ground today.

 

The bushing that wears out is plastic and rides on the shaft between the bracket on the frame and the spring on the shaft. If it moves up and down in the bracket much it is worn out. However, your issue sounds more like the body mount has let go, dropping the body a few inches. If you look at the way the linkage operates, this shoves the rod from the shifter down which is exactly what happens when you shift out of park. Sure sign of this is the shifter goes into park but not into the lower gears, but since it has been adjusted that may no longer be the case.

 

Think me tugging on it with my car makes a little sense now. Possibly shifting the body a little bit allowing it to go into park.

 

From the looks of it, looks like it`s rusted out and sieized up.Looks like where you live, has salt on the roads..Salt and steel don`t mix.Try a pressure washer or go to your nearest car wash and clean off the entire shift linkage area.Let it dry lube it up with some WD-40 on her.Afterwards take a look and see how it operating while someone puts in reverse back into park a couple of time.if your still having a bindng issue, change the whole thing out if you can afford it.The area`s where they move are originally round.Over time, these holes become elongated, you`ll have lots play in them.If you have a floor shifter,or column shifter? you may want to install a cable shift set up.This set up works very well in the long run.I used used to own a 81 Malibu with a 700r4 automatic o/d.It was steering column shifter.I had the same problem.It wouldn`t shift in to reverse at times or sshift back into park.I took it to my tranny guy.He discovered that the shifting linkage was so old and worn,the spring had broke all the moving points where severyly rounded out.It would jam when shifted up or down.He recommened to just install the cable shift kit from b&M.After installing the cable kit, it worked properly ever since.You have less metal to metal contact compared to the oem shift linkage.

I hope this helps.

 

Thanks for the reply. She just informed me that she is wanting to get rid of it. Costing her to much money that she doesn't have.

 

thats pretty much what my problem was. my 93 is a pos and like i said it only did while i was on a crazy incline or a major flex situation. its not just s10s. my 84 k5 did the same thing

my fix, went to a junkyard and snagged a floor shifter out of a late 80s camaro