86 Auto Trans

[harborman]

My auto trans works fine but I never manually droped it down in 2nd or 3rd with the shifter. Unfortunately it does not seem to want to be forced into those gears and probably has not been moved in those positions for a long time. The car now has 57K original miles. The trans fluid and filter were changed and the pan was spotless inside. I got under it and sprayed some PB Blaster on the cable and shifter at the trans, but so far it won't move and I don't want to force it. Any ideas?

[dcrasta]

Is the interlock button engaging? Can you shift normally but just not into 3 and 2?

You may want to remove the shift lever and plastic cover and inspect to make sure no foreign parts like screws or other junk have fallen into the linkage area. (small stuff first).

(Free and you can do it sitting in the car).

[stepson]

Also, can you shift into 2nd while stopped? Or are you just talking about actually downshifting while driving?

[harborman]

Originally Posted by dcrasta

Is the interlock button engaging? Can you shift normally but just not into 3 and 2?

You may want to remove the shift lever and plastic cover and inspect to make sure no foreign parts like screws or other junk have fallen into the linkage area. (small stuff first).

(Free and you can do it sitting in the car).

Sorry I did not explain better. I can move the shifter normally from Park to Drive, but it does not seem to go into 3rd or 2nd. In Drive and when driving it does down shift if I press the gas peddle all the way, but I cannot move the shifter into those lower gears moving or not. This car sat for a long, long time and I just never did use those forced gear changes. The shift lever moves freely from Park to Drive but not into those lower gears.

[harborman]

As it turned out, it was a cable binding on that slide in the rear part. I removed the side panel and saw the problem.