Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum - Help...Broken Shifter Cable? Car won't start?

Guys:

I am very interested in purchasing a 1998 XJR that has been sitting for about 1.5 years. 103K miles. Seller says that rear tires had gone flat. He showed it to a friend who started it and began shifting it into forward and reverse to check the transmission. He tried to tell the potential buyer that the wheels might be frozen a bit from sitting and that he shouldn't try to engage the car with the tires flat but before he could do this he believes that the shifter cable broke. He says that the car will not start and he does not know whether the car is in Park, Drive, Reverse or Neutral. He simply says it will not start, which leads him to believe it may be in drive or reverse. Question 1 is whether I can use the "key" hole next to the shifter to release the gearbox to try to get it into neutral so I can put it on a flatbed (and if so, how?). Question 2 is how difficult is it to replace the shifter cable if that is actually what is broken here? I need to consider this as the car apparently needs one of the rear carbon/evap canisters replaced and I know that is a very labor intensive task due to the need to drop the rear subframe assembly to access the gearbox. The car is otherwise in very good condition but taking into account the amount of time and money I would need to put into her because of the above issues I want to make sure I can come up with a fair offer. He is asking $2000.00. I'd really like to own this car. I've owned a number of older XJ6's both Sovereigns and Vandenplas', but I have wanted an XJR for a long time. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. You can reply here or shoot me an email at my work email address: ldc@orblaw.com

Damien