Thread: Can move shifter from Neutral to reverse

Hey guys I have a question about my daughters 99 GTP.

She had what started as a water pump issue which led to the belt coming off and stranding her. She then told me that she cannot get the trans to shift from neutral to R or P.

The Shifter is in neutral and will pull back to drive but will low pull back to lower gears or move forward to neutral or park. Also for a while now she has been having to stick something down in the little override slot to get it to go into park.

When I had the car towed to my house the tow truck guy left the key in the accessory position and killed the battery because the key would not turn all the way back. Apparently my daughter also uses a small screwdriver to push up on the hole under key to allow it to turn back.

The car shifts fine and the trans seems completely fine. It just is a solid stop when you try to move the shifter from neutral to R or P.

any ideas? Neutral safety switch? Coincidence that it just happened at the same time the belt issue happened?

ah cripes, its the shifter interlock solenoid, its supposed to activate when the brake is depressed and unlocks the shifter /key lock cylinder.

remove the bezel around the shifter, below the shift lock release slot (that the key is inserted into) you will find a white plastic arm attached to the shifter stalk near the base, the key presses the lever down in cse the cable from the solenoid doesnt.

use a zip tie and secure lever into released position.
you will now no longer have any issues with the shifter/keys. you will however be able to remove the keys even if the shifter isnt fully in the park position. this can also lead to a "no start" since the range switch will tell the pcm the trans is in gear and disable the relay.
it can also lead to a car rolling down a hill if the driver is negligent (the whole point of the interlock/nanny)

or you can replace the solenoid/cable assembly/repair a wiring fault

zip tie and a driver who knows the shifter must be fully in park is the cheaper solution

Thanks for the response. I had already opened up the console before posting this and I depress the white plastic piece and still it would not shift. Like I said, I repaired that once before so I am aware of the problems with it. But maybe there is something that I am missing about it. Any other thoughts on it?

I guess i will need to getting there with more light tomorrow and see what I can figure out.

OKay I figured out what was going on. The little in that the white lever pushes out was stuck about a third of the way out. So when you push down on the white rocker is would just bend rather than push out the stuck pin. after applying a little pressure to the back of the pin it popped. Now when you push down on the rocker the pin moves out as it should and the shifter can be moved back to park.

I have a couple small wires in the harness for the shift lock solenoid that have pulled out which is what is keeping i from working as it should. So tomorrow I will work on repairing that and hopefully get that fixed.

Thanks for your help turbocharged. You were right!