Drove to PepBoys and they don't have the part I need but referred me to a Pontiac dealer. All dealers are closed now and I rented a car. Is anyone familiar with the shifter problem Im having here? Seems like other cars have similar functionality and is straight forward to fix, but I havent run into this before. I would rather fix this myself as Im told it can be done without much effort. Very much appreciate any suggestions/comments/instruction with this. Let me know if you need more description or have questions.

Currently the car is parked in Drive gear since I didnt know where to grab under the car to shift out of it, and I thought PepBoys would be able to assist. I leave for MN tomorrow morning but will check my email while im away. Would like to try and fix when i get back. Its a clean car, but im sure that any rubber piece would get brittle after almost 25 years

Thanks again. Mike

1984 Trans Am
L69 305 auto
53K miles original

 

It's not the grommet, you've got a broken shift cable.

 

i cant see how a rubber grommet would make prevent it from shifting, espically since the grommet doesnt actually do anything except protect parts from the elements.

get underneith your car and take a closer look. on the drivers side of the trans there will be a little arm poking out of the side of the case, thats where you select your gears. the cable should be attached to that. you can even move that little arm with your fingers to put it back into park. whats happened is your cable has snapped inside the rubber grommet, pull it back and youll see for yourself.

 

Thanks. I couldn't figure why a grommet had anything to do with it either, but thought i would ask. My car hasn't needed any work near the trans before, so I never paid much attn that area when underneath in the past.

Is a shift cable replacement a difficult job? I have plenty of tools and not afraid to try myself. But it's my primary driver at the moment so i really dont want to screw it up. I'll do some searches here on 3rd gen also.

"Ask twice (....or more), and fix once" is my motto....

 

It's not difficult... if you know what you're feeling around for you can even do it just by reaching under the car while it's on the ground without even jacking it up. For the first time though it's a lot easier to jack it up so you can see what you're doing.

 

fixed it, thanks again