1970 DeVille Transmission.

[Kevin Bielinski]

The tranny on my 70 Coupe will not go fully into PARK unless I go under the car and manually turn the lever all the way clockwise. If I throw the shifter into PARK, the car rolls foward. The linkage apears to be very loose at the point where it bolts to the colums shifter. Someone said that a bushing at this point is know to deteriorate/wear down. Can anyone give me some info on this? OTher than this, the tranny works fine.

[Kevin Bielinski #13320]

6 years later and I think I've come to a solution. A grommet inside the frame for the tranny linkage was all dry rotted out. No one at all had a replacement available. Time to make my own which I did. It appears that this grommet allows the tranny linkage a full range of motion in order to put the tranny into Park. Installation will take place in a few days and I'll post the results.

[The Tassie Devil(le)]

G'day Kevin,

I like it when problem areas can be found and rectified.

These pivoting points always seem to have been made to last only till the warranty period runs out, and then start to degrade, as yours did.   They have to support the shaft in both sideways, and end-on movement, and with little, if any lubrication, will rot.

Rubber was used to make things quiet, but there always is a compromise, but usually they last forever.   As you have found, people just don't make replacements unless there is a demand, in this instant, there seemed to be no demand.

Hope it won't be another 6 years before you report back.    

Bruce.

[bcroe]

I replaced one or those rubber pieces with a stepped aluminum disk, problem solved.  Made
it just loose enough not to bind.  Bruce Roe

[Kevin Bielinski #13320]

It was a rough 6 years in my life, Bruce! Trust me on that one, LOL! But anyhow, I did call up numerous places and all of them said that their's was also damaged as well. Next week will answer all of my questions about this matter.

[TJ Hopland]

That was a big issue with the Eldorados for some reason.   Don't hear about it as much on the RWD cars.  Guess it must have had to do with the angles and such.  I also suspect it had to do where the car lived.  I would imagine if you parked on an incline regularly that would have put more stress on the linkage pulling it out of park. 

On mine the wear was on the 'crank' that changes the direction of the linkage from the vertical rod off the column to the horizontal rod that goes to the transmission.   The Eldo and the RWD cars have the same basic design but they are different since the Eldo trans is forward and the rest are rear. 

On mine I was able to adjust it so it went into park correctly.  Down side was it would not always go into '1' but I did not need that as often as I needed park.   Also had to adjust the 'park neutral' switch to still work properly including the back up lights.  Also meant the indicator did not line up correctly.    Drove it that way for 11 years. 

On mine I bought a universal door hinge repair bushing kit from the 'help' section at the parts store.   It had an assortment of bronze bushings.  One of the bushings was pretty close fit and only required slight modifications I was able to do with fairly typical DIY tools.


Doorman part number 703-274    If stores dont have it under that number they should be able to cross it.