My camaro has a B&M automatic ratchet shifter. When I want to drive, I have to shift to 3 ( Shift pattern is Park, R, N, D, 3, 2, 1).When I shift to "D". nothing happens. I would assume that it's something with the shift cable as the previous owner didn't seem to know or care about how he did things. Is this a hard fix? Thanks!

 

Any help? I know the stock shifter has o/d so is the D on my shifter essentially the overdrive and 3 is basically just drive?

 

Check your shift cable underneath the car. This exact thing happened to me earlier this year making me think I lost my 4th gear (overdrive). Turns out a bolt was gone and another one was loose so I got new bolts on and the cable tightened and walla! It worked again!

 

I agree. Check that first, then check for shifter malfunction

 

Well I looked over the shifter itself and that looks okay, then I looked at the gear indicator as I thought that it may be out of line or some. DO you have any pics of what I should be looking for under the car? I am new to all of this. Thanks!

 

Here's a couple of pics of my shifter cable from 2 different views. It's next to the tranny pan almost close to the driver side.

Over time the 2 bolts will get loose and sometimes you may lose one like what happened to me. That will cause you to lose a gear or maybe all of them if it's loose enough. Don't fear though, pictures will help you!



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If the car is shifting in all gears, Then you may have to adjust the gear indicator on the counsel, it slides back and forth to align it to "D". You probably have the"D" in the neutral position.

 

All of the gears line up on the indicators. I've run through the gears, and they all work except for D. I'll have to look at that bracket and check to see if the bolts are missing or loose. DO I have to remove the transmission pan to get to those bolts? I ask because it looks like it is attached where the pan goes.

 

No, you don't have to do that. There's the bracket with the spring to the side that has the cable inside of it and the bracket has the 2 bolts. You don't need to remove any tranny pan's. DON'T do that.

 

Okay, thanks for the help.

 

Well, just let me know what happens. I like to know that I can help sometimes.

 

Ill be sure to let you know,but I won't be able to work on my car until next sunday, and that's even IF I can then. Man, I I hate not being able to work on her everyday.

 

Stuck in downtown austin at a Board of Adjustments meeting now and as I was parking in the parking garage and tried to go to reverse, i lost all of my gears. Only have nuetral, guy helped me pushed it into a spot and I looked underneath and saw the assembly shown in the picture above hanging. both bolts are gone.

Gonna wait an hour for it to cool off and see if i can find the bolt in the parking garage and all i need is drive to get home.

Glad I parked out of the cold in a parking garage and away from the street and for the first time ever glad this meeting will last till about 10 or 11 pm.

Will keep u guys posted.

 

The bolts are about $5 if you can't find them tonight. Once you get them on you'll need to wrench tighten them, not hand tighten them. I don't know if you keep tools in your car but I keep a wide variety of tools and a kit for an emergency since these are 20+ year old cars.

 

Could not find the bolt. All i had was some pliers and a screw and a little blue LED light. bent the screw to hold the part hanging but it was a no go. Could only get one hand underneath. Just gonna get a ride home tonight and deal with it tomorrow.

 

Don't worry, this happened to me before. You'll get it working on your own. It's a one man job and you'll be driving your car again in no time.

 

Got it fixed, security guard found the bolt and brought it to me; tightened the bolt hand tight and shifted it.

Need another bolt and to fix the plastic round gizmo that connect to the tranny linkage. it is loose.

Now waiting on the Board to call my name, look like a grease monkey now.

 

That's good. Just make sure you get that other bolt soon and wrench tighten those up. They WILL come loose again if you don't do so.

 

Got it done this evening. 30 minute job at most. Added LocTite to the bolts.

Thanks guys!

 

That's cool. I am glad you got it fixed up. I recall earlier in May of this year when I thought my 4th gear went out on me. I was about to get rid of my Jeep to fix my car but about 3 months later when all my gears went out I realized something wasn't right and I found that my bolts were loose/one was gone! I fixed it fast and was enjoying my overdrive again, lol.