Ok here is my problem...

My wife and I took the TA today to go to the bay and then see the fireworks downtown. The car shifted fine, as has always did since I have owned it. Well, we get downtown and go to park and I was going to turn around in the parking lot and the car would not go in reverse. In fact it wouldnt go in any gear except the gear I was in, like it was stuck. It feels like for some reason the shifter is loose, like it's not actually shifting the transmission although I can move the shifter. I parked in the spot and was thinking I would need the car towed and it was going to turn out to be a F-ed up night. I pulled the shift plate and it seems like the shifter isn't engaing, but the cable is moving and the shifter is really loose. Also I can feel/hear something moving in the steering column where the steering column bowl is. Now I know that the bowl is susposed to turn when you shift. It doesn't want to turn and I tried to turn it with my hands as I shifted but nothing. It has some play in it, but I can't actually move it as if to another gear.

I told my wife if I shut the car off we would have to tow it, since if it's in gear and you turn off the car it wont start in gear right?? Well, that is what I thought. I turned off the car and let off the brake and I started rolling backwards!! I pulled the E-brake and then I tried to start it and it started... IN gear!! How is this possible??

Needless to say, I finally got the car home running in first gear all the way. Luckliy with all the traffic I didn't really need to go too fast, but it sucked anyway.

Did I screw the cable up or do you think it just broke? Like I said, when I move the shifter I can hear movement in the column. What would this be??
Also Why could I start the car in gear?

Any help would be appreciated!!

 

this is probably no big deal, ive noticed for both of my camaros, the shifter cable broke or isnt set right. on the cable there is plastic tabs that break easy, thats probably what happened, the tabs broke.

 

Would this be in the shifter area??? I hope it's that easy. I'll have to check it out tomorrow since it was dark out. I'll try to take some pics if it will help any.

Would this mean I would have to change the cable if it is in fact these plastic tabs that broke?

 

in one place, you should be able to unscrew the shifter column inside the car, you can check there, and the other place is underneath the car. check both places.

 

I went out and checked the trans cable today, I checked the lever on my tranny where it hooks up. I couldn't get a real good look at it since I didn't jack my car up, but I did feel it and it seems to be still hooked up to the trans lever. If I move the lever on the trans forward all the way to park and move the shifter inside, I can go through all the gears. However when I try and move the shifter back to park, the cable wont move the actual trans lever out of 1st gear. I don't understand why it will shift down, but won't shift up. I read that there is some kind of plastic grommet or something that holds the cable to the shift linkage and they break over time. I don't know if that is it...I'll have to get the car on ramps or something to get a better look. I didn't feel any kind of plastic bracket or anything, just the rubber boot over the cable. I don't get it.

I also checked the park lock cable. It's working partially, since when the wheel is locked and the lever is in park, I cannot shift out of park. When I turn the key to unlock the wheel, I can shift out of park, however the column bowl is not turning with the gears. How this came undone is beyond me...I'm hoping something in the column didn't break. I guess this is why I can start the car in gear, since the column bowl is susposed to turn with each gear change and it's not turning when I'm in gear. Therefor the car doesn't know I'm in gear due to the switch in the column. It doesn't make sense whey both cables would go out at the same time. They aren't really related except that they both hook to the shifter mechanism. Other than that, they are independent.

I don't know if the cables stretched out too far or what...

 

same deal happened to the project camaro i just bought, theres a little plastic cap on the end shift lever right on the transmission that keeps the cable end attached to it. mine broke off the lever, but the cable stayed attached when i shifted into reverse to back out of my driveway. i went to put it in park halfway down my driveway because i forgot something in my house. i let off the brake pedal and the car kept rolling backwards. so i pulled the e brake and shut the car off. i figured i would just lift the back end to see what was going on. i saw the cable had come off the lever and found a plastic plumbing washer to snap back over the end of the lever, thats kept the cable on for about 3 days so far. and hopefully will until i can order the real part. my cable is messed up anyways my car likes to roll backwards in park with the engine running, i think its just streched out, i didnt look around enough to see if theres an adjuster or anything to put more tension on it. and by the way the reason the car starts even though its stuck in gear is because the gear position sensor is on the shifter, not in the transmission.

 

on my old maro i was at my friends house and i went to put it in reverse, and it was in neutral, my friends had to push the car backward so i could go, lol. thats what was with mine, try to get a better look at it.


it could be up inside the car, or underneath the car.

 

Happened to me at work one day (at the time I was delivering Chinese food). I had this whole car full of egg foo young and chicken lo mein right, so I go and back out of a parking spot, its going well, I go and put it in drive and the car keeps going backwards! In fact I notice the shifter freely moving up and down not doing diddly squat. Well I managed to back out of traffic across the parking lot and I stopped the car. Sure enough the plastic cap had broken exactly in half and allowed me to set it into reverse, but then slipped off.

The only thing keeping your car from starting while in gear is that neutral safety switch which is on the right side of the shifter.

Your car can definitely start with a bypassed neutral safety switch, AND in gear. Its just that the engineers felt it was a bad idea to have a car that could do that.

See in an automatic tranny in order to transfer energy from the output shaft of your motor through the torque converter and into the transmission, it has to be rotating at speed. Normally since you can't start the car in any other selection besides neutral and park we never see this. However if you do manage to start your car in gear you'll see it start and within a blink of an eye its in gear and moving!

Hence the NSS.

 

Well, I got under the car today to check out the shift cable...it turns out the cable came out of the bracket. The cable isn't broken or anything so I slid the cable back in the bracket, however I'm pretty sure there is susposed to be a clip to hold it in, sort of like the clips that hold the cables to the shift mechanism in the console. I pushed it back into the bracket and it's pretty snug, but it would probably be a good idea to get the clip so it doesn't happen again. Also, it seems my park lock cable is fine, after I hooked the trans cable back up and checked the shifter to make sure it shifted right it seems to be working fine. I guess it's only susposed to turn the bowl out of park to unlock the shifter...not for each gear. I had an '86 Grand Prix that would turn the bowl in each gear, but I checked the manual for the GP and I guess it does that since the Park/Neutral switch is in the column, not the console like the TA. Also it wont start in gear like it used to

So everything is cool now, and I'm happy I can drive it now

Here is a pic of the cable and bracket after I hooked it back up...