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73-87 Chevy _ GMC Trucks => Engine/Drivetrain => Topic started by: SUX2BU99 on August 26, 2008, 11:23:14 AM
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Here's the scoop: I finished getting the 6 new body mounts in my truck last night (4 on the cab, 2 on the rad support) and I wanted to roll my truck out of the garage so I didn't wake my daughter whose bedroom is right above the garage. My driveway is short but steep. So I put it in neutral (engine is off) and let it roll back and out, down the driveway fairly fast to keep up momentum, over the sidewalk and into the street. I then started it up and found that I could not get the park pawl to engage. I could get all my gears but it would just roll when in park. I noticed too that the column shifter range of motion was now tweaked and seemed to be higher up than before. Meaning, neutral was now kinda where reverse was and reverse was now kinda where park was. I had to really put the shifter up high to get park. When I shoved it as high as I could, I could hear the pawl clicking just a little as the truck was rolling. It was trying to engage but not quite enough.
So did something shift around? It seems maybe the column moved or something and now my range of gear selection has moved somewhat. I have the 80-down tilt column in my truck (single button cruise control; not the multi-function stalk). And when I grasped the column I could rotate it back and forth about about an inch.
I really hope this is a quick and easy adjustment to fix this. I want to go to the drags on Friday for the first time with my vehicle in 8 years! If I miss this one, I don't think I'll get an opportunity again this season.
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Take the linkage off the trans and see if it will engage.
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I can try that. Any pics of what I'm looking for? I imagine a cable that comes down to a lever kind of thing on one side of the trans? If it does engage by doing this, then what?
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Sux, Most likely all you need to do is loosen the 1/2"-13mm bolt on the linkage going from the column to the frame, it probably will slide on it's own, if not, push up on the rod while holding the linkage going from the frame to the transmission & re tighten the 1/2"-13mm bolt. Hope this helps, if not ask & I'll try to explain it differently. Really once you see how it works, you could have it adjusted in the time it took to read this post. Lorne
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Thanks for the detailed reply, Lorne. I'll get under there and check 'er out. So I'm looking for a lever that comes down from the columan and connects at the frame, which then goes to the tranny and the nut that's on that lever. I found this pic on the Autozone website.
(http://econtent.autozone.com:24991/znetrgs/repair_guide_content/en_us/images//0900c152/80/07/a4/cb//large/0900c1528007a4cb.gif)
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Sux, Yes, Screw (A) pinches the rod going from the column, holding the placement. Loosen it & push upward slightly on the rod & retighten. The column doesn't have the "clicks" for each gear as thought by many people, it is the roller in the tranny going over the detents on the paw inside the tranny pan. The part attached from the frame to the tranny will most likely jump into place once you loosen it & take the pressure off. Lorne
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Cool, thanks again! Hopefully it will all make sense once I crawl under there again. Not sure how it got loosened but maybe it was getting loose to begin with and the jostling of it rolling down the driveway combined with the body being moved around was enough. Hm, maybe cuz the body was moved up a couple of inches, and the column along with it, it yanked on the rod maybe?
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Exactly, At sometime someone had this apart & put it back together correctly (at that time, with sagged/sagging bushings) & now since you raised the cab up from the frame, the distance needs to be longer by a bit. Try it, Lorne
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Thanks for the info, guys. It helped a lot. I got under there tonight and fiddled around with the placement of the rod through the swivel with the nut on it. I was able to get park back which is great. But the 'sweet spot' where you can get all the gears and have Park stay in park without engaging reverse when the key is out and the wheel is locked is very SMALL. I'd have to say less than 1/8" at most. I was able to get all gears but then when I had the key out and would pull on the shifter, it would just barely click into reverse. So now I have where it positively engages Park without going into reverse no matter how I pull on the shifter when the key is out, but it seems I am not getting First. I'll have to take it for a spin and see what I can do. Otherwise I have to get back under there and adjust it by like 1mm to get it where it should be.
(Note to self, push rod up through swivel just a little bit) <-- had to write that while the thoughts were fresh. In order for the shift lever to go up when looking at it in the drivers seat, I had to pull the rod DOWN through the swivel point. Opposite to what I initially thought. And now to get First back, I have to move the shift lever just a touch downward, meaning the rod has to get pushed upwards. Sound right?
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Guys, this thing is really frustrating me >:( In preparing my truck for taking it to the track, I wanted to be able to access 1st gear. I just cannot seem to get it to engage Park fully and cleanly while getting 1st as well. It's one or the other. I managed to get it to where I could get 1st but it was a hit or miss on whether park would engage or not. And even drive and neutral weren't sitting where they should be.
Before that, I had it where I got park just fine but the shifter wouldn't go down enough to get 1st. I got too low, I don't get park. I go too high, I don't get first. Grrrrrrrr
I can't believe a simple body bushing replacement is causing me this much grief!! I had to jack my body up a fair bit to get the bushings out since they had that metal sleeve with a flange on the top that meant jacking it up high enough to get the bolt out. THe new bushings have a better system. Anyway, did I mess something up or what??
And now there is this intermittent rattle that makes this nastly clunking sound. I was worried it was my tranny not being fully engaged in gear, but I'm thinking it might be the adjustment bolt rattling off my exhaust pipe since it sits really close to it and I took some of header wrap off down there. Help!
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Was this truck equipped with a TH350 before getting a 700R4? If so, you might need to move the linkage mount back. (redrill)
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Capt, it still has a TH350. It shifted fine before I did the body mounts. I wonder if I jacked the truck up too high on the drivers side and broke something or I dunno?? I know that if I put the shifter in 1 and then try to insert the rod into the swivel hole, it won't line up enough to go in. So somethings out. I don't know if the rod was bent to make it work when the previous guy installed it or what or if there is anything I can do to modify the location of the adjustment bolt and swivel hole the rod goes thru.
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Make sure the pivot from the frame and bushing are good and that the spring is in there. Loosen the adjuster screw and put the column shift into park. Manually mover the selector on the side of the trans into park also. Check for excessive play in the linkage or the shift tube in the column. If ok tighten the adjuster screw so you have about an equal amount of travel in both directions. If it has a lot of slop at the base of the column the shift tube is broken and you will either need to weld it or replace the column.
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Thanks Vile. It does to seem to have some play. Meaning, if I have it in park and grasp the column itself and rotate it, I can do so a fair bit. I assume this part of the column that moves along when the shifter is moved is called the shift tube? I would say it will rotate 3/4 to 1". I'll have to find a diagram of the column to see how all the parts work together. It's an older column (80-down) if it makes any difference. Could I have broken something when I was jacking the truck up? Welding or replacing the whole column kinda sux since those aren't 2 very simple options (to me).
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Here's some pix
http://www.yearone.com/yodnn/tech/Technicaldiagrams/GMSteeringColumns69up/tabid/369/Default.aspx
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Whoa......that's a whole lotta parts there!
I measured the free play when in Park and the column locked. It moves 3/8". Is that about normal?
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I've been tossing around the idea of putting a console in from an 80's Iroc and using a B&M Megashifter. Is it any big deal on coverting the rod-actuated column shifter to a cable-operated B&M?
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Other than the steering column. I dont know of a good way to hide the unused shifter on the column short of getting one without it.
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I've seen trucks that have the shifter on the column itself removed, leaving only the 'stub' portion on the column itself. Doesn't look too bad really. I gotta find a few things out first. Namely:
1) Will a Camaro console fit relatively okay (with modifying) or just not work at all
2) Is connecting a cable shifter any big deal at the tranny
3) What kind of a job is it going to be to possibly change out my column for another if I broke something in mine that's not allowing the shifter to work properly, which is the problem I'm having now.
4) How much a replacement column is going to be.
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1)Camaro console is designed to mount on the trans tunnel that goes the length of the floorpan on the F-body, you would have to build something for it to mount to.
2) Not a big deal at all. Jeff (bigblock73)has one on his
3) It is an undertaking and would probably take a couple hours to get it out. If everything is in there functional (AC, Wiring, etc) anything under the column would have to be removed.
4) ccz145a got one recently I can't remember how much it was, everything was rebuilt.
For the column, you could cut the "stub" off and epoxy the hole over....
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Yeah I would have to heavily modify the lower portion of the console to fit my floor. That's okay, I'm not worried about that portion. I looked on B&M's site and it looks more like I should buy a universal shifter rather than the F-body console shifter. That's becuse the F-body stock shifter is cable-operated and the universal gives you the parts needed to convert a linkage shifter to a cable one. The only thing I wonder is if the B&M shifter cover plates are the same between the universal and the F-body. I wouldn't doubt it if they are which means getting the universal one is the way to go since the only thing I wouldn't use is the plastic base. That would work out awesome if the cover plates were the same size.
But before all that happens, I gotta for sure find out if my column is working as it should or not. Not having access to first in order to having a positively-working Park really sucks since my shiftpoints are totally lame right now :-\
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Because I can only work on my truck a few weekends a month, I bit the bullet and got a completely refreshed column from these guys: http://www.gmtiltsteeringcolumn.com/ (http://www.gmtiltsteeringcolumn.com/)
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^ Nice. Columns aren't cheap though, eh?
So got back under there tonight again. This rattling that appeared at the track (before I raced it) had me rather concerned. I was worried it was the pawl sorta engaging, but it's not. I'll create a new post about my findings on the clunk. Anyway, I adjusted it again so I could have positive Park again, but now I think all I got is Drive at the bottom of the shifter travel. I'm going to have to read back through Viles notes to see what I can check. Like I said above, I have about 3/8" of play when I rotate the column back and forth (when the column is locked) from inside the cab. I don't know if that's excessive or not.
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If you can move the lever in the engine compartment that attaches your linkage while the shifter is in park then your shift tube is broken. Just throw in a junkyard column.
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Salvage columns aren't that expensive... I wanted a tilt 84 up column and couldn't find one salvage. Plus mine was trashed and broken so I bought one that was rebuilt and spent some quality time with the truck doing other stuff.
Just incase your basing your decsion to put it in the floor on the price I said I got my column at... I wanted you to know my situation.
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Thanks guys. When I was under the truck, I remember looking high up to see where the rod goes and saw an attachment point to what would be the column shifter. I'll try what Vile said. I do know that when I have it adjusted to where I can get Park to work properly, and the column is locked, I can move the linkage just a little bit. Just feels like usual play though. It's not enough to pop it out of park. But, if I slide the rod through the swivel hole enough, I can make it pop into reverse. That's how I'm trying adjust it: trying to make it stay in park while the column is locked and not being able to pop into reverse, while being able to access all drive gears after I turn the key to unlock the column. I sure would hate to spend the time and money to swap the columns only to find I have the same problem, which just ends up being having to find the extremely narrow sweet spot. Should it be this hard?
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Well I got this one fixed too :) The price of buying a Haynes manual was worth it for this. It had a section on adjusting the shifter and their method was to use Neutral as the reference point. So I loosened the nut attached to the shifter rod at the tranny, put the trans in neutral and then got up into the cab and put the shifter into the neutral position. Crawl back under, tighten and the nut and voila! Proper shifting!! Woohoo! I don't know why I could not get it adjusted using Park as the reference but using Neutral as the reference was a winner. It took like 10 min. and I had spent a LOT longer messing around with it previously.
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Good to hear!