Hi All,

Been a while since I've been on. My car has been in storage for a variety of reasons.

I went to take out my 1997 Vanden Plas today. Started up fine, and engine ran great. The problem came when I tried to shift out of Park. The shift lever did not want to move. I tried rocking the car back and forth, but made no difference. After letting it run for about 10 minutes, I tried again. This time I used a bit more force, and it did shift into Reverse and Drive.

The problem is that when I shift it back to Park, it appears it is not engaging the Park gear. The car rolled back, and I could hear the tell-tale clicking sound as it tried to hold.

My guess is that I've broken or bent something in the shift linkage. Any advice as to what the problem may be, and how to approach repairing it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks very much,

Leo

 

Usually when the shifter does not want to move out of the Park position it means the Shift Lock solenoid is stuck. Sometimes pressing the brakes a few times while lightly moving the shifter will disengage it and sometimes you have to undo the plastic star screw in the shifter assemly and stick a long narror screw driver to disengage the lock. Forcing the shifter to move will more than likely bend or break something which has happened more than likely.
The best thing to do is to remove the "waterfall" wood trim and the shifter trim surround and investigate the shifter assembly.

It also could just need some adjustment of the shifter position from underneat the car right by the transmission drain pan. The linkage will be protected by a shield that's held on by two 10mm bolts and adjusting that linkage while the car is in park will manually engage it in park.

 

Thanks.

I haven't had a chance to check anything out yet. Maybe today, after work. I will post what I find.

Do you think there is any chance I could have broken something inside the transmission. With my limited knowledge of how it works, I would expect the cable, or some part of the linkage to fail first. At least, that's what I'm hoping.

Thanks again

Leo

 

Hi Leo,

There is almost zero chance that you damaged anything inside the transmission. As AlbBolivar has already mentioned, it is likely that you bent or broke something in the J-gate mechanism and it is possible that whatever was bent or broken is preventing the gearshift lever from returning all the way to the Park position. The gearshift lever connects to the transmission rotary switch via a cable, and it is also possible that the cable adjustment has been affected at either the lever or transmission end. You'll have to start your investigation at the J-gate by removing the trim as AlbBolivar mentions.

To access the J-gate mechanism, unthread the gearshift knob and its conical jam nut. The J-gate trim can be gently pried out of the wood trim. The ashtray comes out with a couple of screws and the electrical connectors (you may also need to loosen the screws at the hinge of the arm rest/cupholder). There are a couple of wingnuts underneath the rear edge of the wood "waterfall" or "ski slope" trim. With those wingnuts removed, set the hand brake and move the gearshift lever to the Drive position, then carefully lift the wood ski slope up and out, taking care not to scratch the leather around the radio and climate control panel. If you need to lift the assembly off the transmission tunnel for inspection, I think four screws secure the black J-gate trim, then a few more screws attach the gearshift assembly to the transmission tunnel (you'll be able to tell once you get to this point). You may need to disconnect a few electrical connectors.

Cheers,

Don

 

Thank you both for responding. I did not have time tonight to have a look inside the J gate, but I will soon.

What I really needed to hear at this point was that I have not completely trashed my Jag's transmission. I have been sick over it, mainly because it was a stupid thing to do, and I have only myself to blame. I guess I was so anxious to get her out on the road that I did not stop and assess the situation when it happened.

Also, when I pulled it out of Park, it didn't really seem to take very much force. I thought it was just something gunked up from sitting idle since last Summer.

Hopefully, it will be something I can find and fix myself. I feel much more confident of that after reading your posts.

Thanks so much, and Cheers to you as well.

 

Leo,

I intended to also mention that I did something similar several years ago when our '93 XJ40 stalled while our son was driving. I went to rescue him and in my rush to get the car out of an intersection, I broke the gearshift interlock mechanism. Since our gear selector has continued to function properly ever since, including going into Park, I haven't bothered to fix it. We've just lived with the fact that the gearshift lever can be moved into any gear position even when the engine is off, so we just have to be sure we really do secure the transmission in Park before leaving the car.

Cheers,

Don

 

Well Guys, I'm not really sure what I did, but I believe I fixed it!! It now holds in Park, shifter moves very smoothly through the gears, and after a short test drive, seems as though all is well.

I followed your directions and disassembled the console and J-Gate. I could see the shift lever was not going all the way up to Park. I cleaned up the shaft that the mechanism rides on. While I was moving the shifter around, just to see how it all worked, it suddenly seemed to free up, and easily went up to Park, closing the little switch at the top of the assembly. I think what may have happened was that the pin on the side of the shift lever that goes into the white plastic piece, was not seated properly. When you go to the manual shift side, the top pin disengages, and the lower one kicks in. It was after going through the whole cycle a couple times that it seemed to be OK. Actually, the shifter seems to move more freely now than it has since I've owned it.

The only issues I still have is that I have to wiggle it a bit in Reverse to get the backup lights to come on. I also have a slight space between the "ski-slope", and the ash tray. Probably need to adjust a few things to make it all fit properly. Mosquitos were brutal last night, so I didn't take the time to take it apart again.

But, all in all, I'm very happy and relieved. Thank you very much for your help. I plan to give her a little work over the next few months, so I'm sure I'll have other issues to discuss here. Hope to be in contact again.

Leo

 

Happy news, Leo! A little diligence paid off, and you didn't even have to get under the car! Gotta love cost-free repairs. Good job.

 

Hey guys I had a similar problem and every so often I would not be able to shift fully into park. After a while of no problems I had a week of not being able to put the car in park and had to leave it in the garage. I got busy and went through the console and J-gate and verified that all was functioning so I decided to follow the cable and discover the problem. I had my brother shift while I watched and the connector between the cable and the shift arm on the transmission below the car was messed up. It is a small ball joint connector and the ball joint locks up and stops moving, so I removed it and worked the ball joint with grease and it now works like a charm. Remove and replace the ball joint or just lube and work it for a temporary fix.

 

Appreciate the information. Mine seems to be OK at the moment, but what you described may be the root of my original problem. I will definitely check it out.