Ok heres what happend I decided to change my tranny fluid and filter ( I have a B&M shift kit BTW)and while I was at it I was gonna install this drain kit by B&M which is just a couple of nuts,bolts and a washer, soo I take off all the bolts and notice that the cable has a Bracket (shown in the first pic) now the bracket was attached to the pan with two bolts (second pic) and between the bracket and the pan was two spacers (last pic) soo I unbolt everything take the pan off change the oil filter, gasket, drill the hole for the drain ( at this point the Pan has been off the transmission for a little over 30 minutes with no disturbance but a little wind) I put everything back put the new filter in, tighten the bolts including the bolts with the spacers that attach the bracket to the pan, Fill her up and turned on the car. Heres where the Problem comes in, I go to shift the car out of park and the shifter doesn't wanna move soo after alot of head scratching my buddy see's that because the bracket is bolted down not letting the cable move(keep in mind that the brackets were bolted down before all this and the car shifted fine) soo we say screw it and take the bracket completely off the pan and kinda just let it hang there, I check the shifter before we put everything back together and the shifter moves fine , soo problem solved right? .... WRONG. we put everything back together filled her up and when I try to shift, it moves up and down but now doesn't go into gear, its stuck in park, what could of possibly happened, right now the car is in my buddy's back yard and I need my car running asap.

 

Teh cable bracket needs to be bolted to the pan in order for the shifter to move teh manual shaft. Without the bracket bolted down, the shifter cable housing will move as well, making it seem like the shifter is working. In reality, the trans is still in park.

It takes some force to overcome the detents in the trans and actually move from gear to gear. Bolt the bracket up in its origional location and check for binding. Try leaving out the spacers. It may be different from year to year, but I dont ever remember seeing spacers on any of my vehicles with 700/4L60-E transmissions

Its also possible to select the gears by moving the detent shaft by hand. Ive done it out of desperation, but I wont go into the details as its rather dangerous to put the car into gear when your partially underneath it.

 

Im not familiar with the B&M megashifter, but that cable doesnt look stock. It may take some fiddling to get it to work properly, unless you replace it with a stock shifter cable, which may be the best solution.

 

I just dont understand how the cable can move if its bolted down, in the first pic you can see there a longer hole which would allow it to move back and forth but when I first took off the bracket there where bolts in two places holding it down fairly tight and it was shifting fine Not that it matters anymore because now the shifter moves but doesnt go into gear lol, Another thing is when we finanly got the shifter to move we noticed there wasn't any mechanical movement inside the transmission, we didnt think much of it we figured once the pan was back on and it had fluid things would start working again but here we are......whats the relationship to the cable and the mechanical parts you see whe you drop the pan seems like something is completly diconnected? shifter moves fine but no activity from the transmission

 

The cable actually moves inside the housing. The housing is what your bolting down, or should be bolting down. That needs to be stationary in order for it to actually work and transmit movement from the shifter to the trans. When its working properly, you should hear a nice solid 'click' from the transmission as the manual shaft moves from detent to detent.

Basically, now it sounds like the entire cable, housing, bracket, and all move since its not bolted to anything. The shifter will move, but do nothing.

 

This should illustrate the basic mechanics of how it works. The arrows show movement. The housing needs to be bolted down or itll flop around when you try to shift gears.

 

I see what your saying but the thing is when it was bolted down it didnt allow the shifter to move iam thinking I some how put it back together wrong, though I cant think of many different ways to so put it back together (spacer/bracket/bolt). HEY I didnt know that bracket thing had anything to do with the shifting it kinda just looks like it holds the cable secure (thanx for the help btw)

 

I've dealt with that Megashifter bracket before, first when I had a 700R4 and now with my TH350. I used the two spacers on both tranny's. But I never had a problem like this, always put it back how it was and it worked. Only time I had a similar problem was with a stock shifter and ended up being the cable popping out of the bracket/holster right in front of the shifter (under the radio). I would try to shift the tranny in and out of gear from under the car with a friend holding the brakes. Then you'll know if you need to focus on the shifter or the tranny. Shouldn't be dangereous if you're using good jackstands on level ground w/ solid footing. I always try to push/rock my car off the jackstands after setting them all up. Just give a few solid pushes, nothing too crazy. I know it sounds retarded but I would rather it fall when I'm not under it. If you can't push it off the stands, then no way vibration from shifting could push it off. I had to do this recently while troubleshooting my parking pawl, being under the car while its being shifted.

 

those spacers are to clear the pan. sounds like when you bolted it back up, you put it in the wrong holes.

 

I do the same, and theres nothing wrong with that on stands. I shifted it into gear with the car on the ground so I could move it.

 

Ok guys Iam going to try to put the bracket back and try 2 different holes, (there are about 4) Just to clear things up should there be any type of mechanical movement inside the tranny when I shift (right around the filter theres a sprocket/crank looking thing) or will it only shift if the bracket is bolted down?

 

the shifter cable mechanism moves teh manual shaft (black metal thing that it bolts to on the side of the trans.) And yes, itll only work when the cable housing is securely bolted down.

 

you can grab the manual shaft and move it if the housing isn't bolted down, but you have to do it at the transmission. as long as the housing isn't bolted down, the shifter inside the car is useless.

move the lever on the transmission all the way toward the front of the car by hand.this puts the trans in park. then move the shifter to the park position and this should get you close to the proper bolt holes assuming you haven't messed with the cable adjustment.

 

Ok soo this morning me and a friend (firebirdnyc) get under the car prepared to figure this thing out, upon inspection we noticed that the cable is the only thing thats moving and not the the thing that I think is called the manual shaft (little lever looking thing holding a thin metal wire connected to the cable) on the side of this lever mounted to the tranny, there is a bolt and on the other side is a pin holding it (kinda like the way hood pins work) so for what ever reason the pin was open in the shape of a U (see pic2), and iam guessing it should of been closed like the little wire that goes around bags of slice bread that you always lose, Anyway it was open and got clamped in between the pan and the tranny when we bolted the pan on (see pic 1) ofcourse we couldn't see this last night because it got pretty dark and we had little light. And basically since it was clamped down it wasnt allowing the leaver to move and since it wasnt able to move it couldnt be put into gear soo we droped the pan, took it out, clamped the pin together and we were back in business. dont you hate when something stupid like this gives you problems. I cant complain though I was glad is wasn't a serious problem thanx for the help guys.

 

shame on the both of you haha.

 

both????? i thought you were the one helping him.....lol.

you're right, at least it wasn't anything serious. glad you found the problem.

 

hopefully i dont run into a stupid problem like this when i drop mine

 

dude, we all run into stupid problems at some point and time. if you do, we will be here to help.....lol.

 

glad you guys are here for support and the occasional point and laugh , feel free to do so. We have plenty of these stories but there to embarassing to tell

 

SHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i've got a few as well......sssshhhhhhhh