The J-Gate never worked since I bought my XK8, which was never a huge concern as I planned on doing an LS1/T56 swap anyway. It would get physically stuck halfway between D and 4, so I never had access to the manual side. However, I tried to address the issue today. I took the center console out and discovered that the J-Gate had to be moved slightly backward in order to engage the manual side. So I ran it through the gears a few times, and I am not sure what happened, but the last time I ran it through it got stuck on 2. Of course I can't take the key out now as well.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

 

Never mind. The brake switch for some reason disengaged when it was in 2, and would not reengage when I stepped on the brake because the car knew it wasn't in park. I just stepped on the brake and manually pushed the brake switch to get it out of gear.

On a separate note, any ideas on why the J-Gate would have this sort of malfunction to begin with? From what I can tell, there is a top and bottom hole on the plastic piece attaching to the linkage, and when you shift from the auto side to the manual side the pole on the top half of the shifter disengages and the bottom engages to continue pushing the linkage in a linear fashion. It looks to me as though the bottom part won't engage without moving the shifter rearward while shifting to the side. Is this piece known to warp/deteriorate?