As the title says. My shift lever is stiff, and stiff enough that i blew the cable apart at the bracket at the tranny trying to force it to shift. Cable wasn't bound up or anything, had a nice angle and curvature to its pathway from shifter to lever, fluid level was fine. I took the pan off last night just to kinda poke around a bit, and after studying the lever and the rooster comb looking gear that locks each shift position, i noticed the resistance on the spring (really a metal bar with a roller on the end) was really tight. If i leveraged it a small amount it drastically changed how stiff the lever was.

so tldr, can that metal bar providing resistance and positional lock to the lever have its firmness adjusted? Eveeything else seems fine.

edit: i got to thinking right after i posted, i could just put a washer under the bolt holding that metal bar to the valve body and that would relieve the excess pressure without modifying anything at all, i could return to factory design if necessary. What do you guys think?

 

Was it OK before and then problems?
I can't say I recall ever having to modify the decent in the transmission. Except for one time when the bracket on the trans pan was bent, it's always been a cable issue.

 

That spring doesn't just up and randomly develop excess tightness all by itself. Maybe the space aliens broke into your car late at night and pranked you?

Seriously, something like that doesn't just "happen". something is wrong. I'd suggest figuring it out and repairing it, rather than just rigging it somehow. Unless of course you wouldn't mind taking another trans fluid bath in like a month or something, when it suddenly gets worse or falls apart or whatever it's on its way to doing. Maybe, just go to a transmission shop and see if they'll sell you the shift lever piece with the detent, the detent ball, and the detent spring. That's pretty much all the parts that could possibly cause it. Other than, as skinny said, the cable itself is fornicated, and can't deal with the correct detent tension. Since as he says, about 90% of the time when something like that happens, it's a problem with the cable; and the other 10% of the time, it just needs a new cable. I've never heard of the parts inside the trans going bad. Not that they "can't", or "won't", or "never have", or "never will", or "never do"; just, in 4½ decades of fooling with cars, I've never come across any such. Butt there's always a 1st time, no?

 

I appreciate the replies, let me specify which cable is borked because i dont think i was actually very clear on that..
From what i understand ,the detent cable is the one running to the throttle linkage at my carburetor, its perfectly fine. The one i have trouble with is the one running from the gear shifter lever in the uh.. cockpit, attaching to the lever outside, then to a rod and half-moon gear inside. That half-moon gear ratchets into each gear selection via a thin metal bar about 4 inches long, with a roll pin on the end that reduces friction on the half-moon gear.

Thats the cable that blew apart. The lever's rotation just feels more stiff than i think it should be. It was always like this.

I should also say that yeah, there's somwthing wrong internally because I have very little power applied to the wheels in second or third. It was using a th350 gear shifter so i couldnt test first yet, hence the reason i wanted to fix this part before tearing any further so I could see if it was just second and thirs, or if firdt was effected as well. When in drive it operates beautifully, which means it's not any clutches or bands, otherwise i would see performance loss in manual selection as well as drive, or so i have been told...

it needs rebuilt for sure, but this lever and its metal bar-tensioner-whatever isnt in any of the rebuild kits i have seen so far.

 

Here is anbimage for the lever i am concerned about. I pulled this image from online, currently not home.

 

Since i have this image, i want to point out that i have no idea what this tube is, mine does not have one, and that is concerning to me.

 

Oh... no I wasn't talking about a detent cable, not least because the 700 doesn't have one. I was talking about that exact thing.

Somehow I had it in my mind that it used a ball against the thing with the teeth, to create the detent; but I guess it's a roller instead. The point remains the same though; that spring didn't suddenly tighten itself up, and just loosening it, while it might make it appear to "work", isn't the solution. Whatever the underlying cause of the actual problem, is still there. Kinda like walking down the road and seeing a little old lady laying on the sidewalk gasping for breath, and asking all the nearby women for makeup to fix her face looking so gray; instead of calling an ambulance for a heart attack.

Fix what's REALLY wrong with it. Which odds are VERY HIGH, it's the cable; and all you did by loosening that, was take a bit of stress off of the cable, so that whatever part of it was binding, didn't bind so much anymore. In which case, as whatever it is continues to wear out, you'll be right back where you are now again in a week or a month or whatever, or maybe it'll just fall completely apart on you.

 

The tube incidentally has to do with an "auxiliary valve body", which not all 700s have. It's a year-model change, can't recall the year exactly, but seems like it was around 87 that it appeared.

 

Ok cool, sounds like since mine is an 84 it isnt supposed to have that tube, which confirms what a trans shop told me about it when i asked them today. The cable was pretty much garbage for sure, but exactly how much tension should i expect on this lever? Like, i can move it by hand but its not exactly an easy thing to do. Not hard either, probly only about 5-15 llbs of torque to move the lever from park to reverse, and so on down the line. Is that just how stiff its supposed to be? I am used to newer vehicles with much easier shifting, like if the button is pressed and you bump the shifter by wccident you can knock it into the next gear.. so this stiffness was surprising but maybe i'm just not used to it..

 

That amount of torque sounds pretty believable. I'd suggest putting it all together, with the pan still off; get in the car; and see if the shifting effort passes the smell test. And you're right, this is an OLD car, which requires a little muscle (damn little, but some) for many of its functions.

 

Yup !!!!

 

There are two different rooster combs for the 700R4. The gold one (the one in the picture) is the right one for the console type shifter. This has a lower detent type of groove which makes it easier to make the shift lever move. This truck a higher detent type of groove which makes it harder to make the shift lever move. This is required with the shifter being on the column. By the way, the auxiliary valve body started in 1987.

 

Dana ----------> You ROC !!!!

 

Gonna necro my own thread as a post to end it really, today I had the opportunity of driving in two other camaros of similar years, and in each, their shifters were HARDER to move than my own, after reassembling, filling with proper fluid, and putting the correct shifter in.. These two camaros are well taken care of, good condition, and garage kept, so if I am to use them as a baseline for my own, it seems I simply overreacted (or it had something to do with fluid levels/improper shifters/junk cables etc etc). Regardless, knowing that mine moves smoother than theirs brought a great deal of peace of mind. It's still a long way from car show ready, needs alot of body work and some tlc concerning the steering/suspension, but as far as drivetrain goes i've almost ran out of problems. One remains, and I'll be makinga new thread for it, because I feel it is going to be as complex as when I had to rebuild the motor. Thank you again to each of you for talkingme out of drastically modifying things, turns out as usual I'm just a newbie lol.