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1970 Coupe Tranny Linkage?

Started by Kevin Bielinski, October 19, 2005, 12:10:13 PM

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Kevin Bielinski

The tranny on my 70 Coupe DeVille will not go into PARK. I jacked the car up and took a look at the linkage of which I know nothing about. Anyone have any advice on how to troublshoot this problem? Only thing I really noticed is that the linkage is loose. If so, does the steering colum have to be relpaced as well? Again, as I said, I know nothing about linkages. Engines are my thing. But I don;t want to bring the car to the shop if its something simple.

Doug Houston

If the transmission selector will go into all positions other than park, I wonder if the park pawl or the piece that it engages could be damaged. Normally, if the wheels are in motion, the pawl just ratchets in the rotating member, because it cant lock the drive shaft. Is it possible that the lever could have had a strong yank into the park position? If so, it might have broken something in the transmission. Its been a long time since I had one of the THM 400 transmissions apart, but the park mechanics might be visible from the bottom with the pan off. Youd be able to get an idea what is going on.

At any rate, it sounds like the problem is in the transmission.

Bruce Reynolds # 18992

Kevin,

Whilst seated in the car, can you feel the detents when carefully moving the gear lever through its arc of operation?

One easy way to check the parking mechanism is to jack the car up, put it on jackstands, and with the rear wheels clear of the ground, disconnect the linkage at the transmission, and work the lever by hand and turn the tailshaft be habnd to see if the parking pawl is engaging.

It may just be a case of the linkage becoming out of adjustment.

There are bushes in the linkage, and if one of those has slogged out, it might be creating a lack of movement at one end.

Bruce,
The Tassie Devil(le),
60 CDV

Denise 20352


  Is the gearshift jammed so that you cant push it into park, or do you put it up there and it just doesnt lock?

  If you can physically get the gearshift into the detent and the transmission still isnt in park, it is possible that the bushing in the shaft is so worn out that the shifter cant get the lever up there.  Im taking about the rubber bushing on the other end of the shaft that goes to the transmission lever, where it connects to the body.  Sometimes the bushing is totally gone, in which case you can make a temporary one by splitting a piece of fuel or heater hose, working it in there and putting a clamp around it, until you can get the right bushing.

  It is fairly easy to disconnect the shift linkage from the transmission shaft, while you have the vehicle up on jack stands, and see if you can push it into park.  You may have to adjust it when you put it back together, but it probably needs adjusting anyway.  In fact, that might be the problem.

  If you disconnect the linkage and you cant get it into park by pushing the lever manually, it may be a problem inside the transmission.  You can tell that it is in park because the driveshaft will lock, when you have jack stands holding the rear wheels off of the ground.

-d

Porter 21919

Kevin,

Is the shift lever stiff ?

I had that problem with my 90 Van a few years ago, all of the sudden it wouldnt stay in park, the linkage needed to be lubricated and then the shift lever operated very smoothly.

HTH,

Porter