In my previous post a couple of days ago concerning total blackout on my S Type I was faced with the problem of getting the automatic gearbox into neutral from park without any battery power.

My problem was eventually solved when power was restored, but during my efforts prior to solving it I was told by a friend that owns a 1999 XJR that in his car there is an easy solution getting the gearbox into neutral.

Apparently there is a plug close to the gear selector that when removed allows a screw driver to be inserted to then unlock the gear selector.

For future use I am wondering whether such a useful option has been designed into the S type gearbox. I have looked and see no obvious plug or hole but maybe removal of surrounding trim might reveal something.

Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Frank

 

It's there and details were posted before if you Search

 

I have searched and it would seem the combination of the various words I have used on several attempts have not come up with the 'jackpot'. Would appreciate guidance to find the answer regarding whereabouts of this access point to by-pass the park lock position of the selector.

 

Hibernian, I think this is the thread that is referred to. (although it has been a while since I read it).

Stuck Shifter in Park Position.

 

Yeah, I was curious to learn about this but haven't found anything after 10 minutes of searching and reading old threads.

 

Basically, just take the stuff around the shift lever off until you can get at the mechanism then it's obvious. It's a bit of a strip-down......

 

Thanks Translator, that's an interesting thread although it strays into the realms of the parking brake rather than freeing the gear selector lock.

It's quite a laborious task though when one considers the simple engineering solution present on the XJR as detailed in my original post.

 

If you can find TSB S307-01 it's included.

edit: it's important to realise just how odd (unusual) it is to want to do this

 

Car: 2003 STR 111K miles, one owner, dealer serviced since new, new trans 1.5 K ago, full dealer 144 pt inspection before buying. Not 'perfect' but a very nice car.

I've owned this STR less than one week. 97 total miles of my driving with probable no more than 30 engine starts and stops.

This morning, fired it up, drove it from it's parking spot 30 feet, reversed, backed up 10 feet to the shop front door. Loaded with the day's goodies,......fired it up, won't go out of park. Read as many forums as I could find....nada....nothing is changing. Jacked up on wheel jacks, pushed it out of the way, going to drive the (19 years 285K never failed) 911 instead.

Any suggestions? is this a common problem? any suggestions as to the amount of 'Pilot' error that might be involved? if so what?

Tomorrow, Monday, less that a week of jag time and it's call the tow truck, crack out the wallet, off to the jag. shop time.

Thanks for any and all in site, +/- regardless.

M.L.

 

Not common. Might be a microswitch for the safety interlock - if one's failed then it's correctly safe (if annoying).

Also could be the bolts on the side of the trans for the shifter as they can come loose or even fall out. Easy to check, and use Search if you want to know more.

 

It's been observed on S-Types that when parked on a slope the transmission parking pawl can jam. The solution is to push the car up the slope while someone pulls the transmission out of the park position. This happens to other cars too, but not to the same degree.

The usual advice is to get in the habit of applying the parking brake before putting the vehicle into park.

 

That only affects cars up to VIN M45254 i.e. the original ones with the Ford 5R55N. He's got an STR so has not got that, he's got the ZF 6HP26.

 

I was only supplying the muscle power

 

That'll break it!