87 Cutlass 442, Shifter problems

[442Dude]

The car was my dads. He had it from the early 90s. It wasnt till the later that decade that someone tried to steal it and the trans never worked the same. He had the trans replaced, but he didnt keep the original one. 🙁 Sucks, right? Anyways, i dont have the original cable bracket. I do have two different ones. One that looks like this...

and one that looks like this(which is for a 350th i believe)...

The shifter lever does all the shifts when i turn it by hand so i know there is not internal issue. But when i set it up with the linkage, it doesnt shift right. There is something wrong with my geometry or i have an incorrect shifter cable. Dont have one, but ill upload a pic later.

 

[442Dude]

So i went back and tried the old shifter cable. I put the the shifter on neutral and turned the shifter lever to neutral and noticed that the eyelets lined up almost perfectly. Im pretty sure the new cable that i had purchased several months ago is incorrect. The original shifter cable measures about 26 and 1/4 inches while the newer one measured about 29 and 1/2 or so. The cable on RockAuto for a th200r4 says its 26.15 inches, so im going ahead and getting that one. My guess is that the one i purchased is for a th200.

 

[442Dude]

Hey guys, just wanted to let yall know it WAS the shifter cable. I got one from RockAuto and it fit like a glove. Shifts are on point. Now im just going to add some ATF and give it ago. But maybe after this bad weather. Texas weather is crazy. One day 80 degrees and the next below freezing.

 

[Mat1227]

Glad to hear that a new cable seems to work. My original 87 442, I had the same issue, when someone stole the radio, from it, they forced the shifter and it stretched that cable, and couldn't shift the trans, so I had to turn the steering column to shift to drive to get it home. And replacing the cable fixed the problems. It's sad to say that it may have been the only problem when your Dad had the Trans changed after the attempted theft.

Mark

 

[442Dude]

I agree with you. It could have been a simple fix, but my dad was young and didn't know much about cars. And those damn mechanics didnt tell him either. Oh well, you learn from mistakes right?