I think I broke my trans...again.

Been having an issue where below 30 degrees the gear selector is very hard to shift from park, or to any gear for that matter. I'd have to force it a bit to start driving. Once the truck warmed up enough the selector would shift gears normally and all would be well.

Well, today I went out for some grub earlier, and the trans shifted properly by the time I got back. Just now, (less than 2 hours later) I went to pull the truck into the garage, and it was tough to get the gear selector back to park. Got it, shut the truck off and took a look at what I needed. Then went to back out of the garage and noticed the part that tells you what gear you're in said I was still in drive.

I can move the selector all over with lots of effort... but it won't read anything but 1, or 2 now.

How can I get the gear indicator to read park again so I can start the truck?

I found another thread by Bigeffinghammer where the advice was to look for a cracked covering on the shift selector which I can do as well, but it's darn cold outside so I'd like to at least get the truck to a garage with enough space to work on it. Mine barely fits the truck, so doing any work on it is difficult.

 

Well, I got the shifter to give me Neutral and all forward gears now, so I suppose I just have to push it backwards until I get park and reverse adjusted properly.

 

Tried to follow Swartlkk's instructions in the other threads I found on this... and I think I royally screwed up now.

Now the gear selector has no tension on it at all, but the shift cable isn't working. Is it possible I snapped the shift cable?

 

I'll answer my own question there... yes I absolutely snapped it.

That's the end that goes inside the truck. Gee, I wonder why it had no tension on it?

 

Man oh man does it pay to have friends sometimes.

I needed the truck back ASAP so I looked around to try and find the cable.
Rock Auto had it for 55 bucks plus 30 for overnight shipping.
Local dealer could get me one for 89 bucks plus tax... but I'd have to wait till tomorrow.

Called my friend who runs a small auto repair shop and turns out her supplier had one. She gave it to me for cost. 62 dollars! From the time I told her to order it, till the time it was in my hand was only 20 minutes.

Then, since it was slow at work today, I ended up taking random trips to work on the truck whenever I got bored. Got everything back together, jumped the truck and it's working great!

(had to jump the truck because I ran the radio and left the door open while I was working on it... whoops)

While playing with the old cable after I got the new one, I noticed it has a crapload of muck and water being held between the cable and outer rubber sheath. That, coupled with the multiple cracks in the cable, and it's no wonder I had issues with the shifter when it was cold outside.

New question though... are there any tips or tricks I can use to keep water from getting between the cable and sheath when I go offroading? Specifically since my favorite type of mud is really watery?

 

Glad it all worked for ya in the end...thats a good question on sealing that up..would like to know also.