QuestionQUESTION: The shifter on the cruiser has been sticking badly (hard to shift between gears, feels gummy for lack of a better term). I drove it to work this morning and when I put it in park I heard a snapping noise and the car slipped out of gear. The engine will not turn over and when I try to shift between gears, the shifter moves without seeming to catch on anything. Whether it is Park, Neutral, or Reverse, the car will roll. Transmission fluid levels are good, oil was changed 3000 miles ago.
ANSWER: You need to inspect the shift interconnection between the lever in the cabin and the shift rod at the transmission. You didn't mention but it sounds like this is a stick shift transmission rather than an automatic, correct? The engine starter motor will not operate unless the park/neutral safety switch is in one or the other of those gear positions which it obviously not the case. The trans must be in some other gear or in betweeen park and some other gear So it all adds up, you just need to see where the connection is broken and repair it.
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QUESTION: It is an automatic.
As I'm completely car illiterate, is this something I can do or am I better off taking it to a shop?
Thanks for the amazingly fast reply.
AnswerIt depends upon what you see when you look under the hood and with the help of a friend. Look at the vertically oriented shift rod on the side of the transmission that faces the front of the car. Have the friend move he shift lever and see if you can observe the rod to move or not, and it not is the cable connected to the rod showing any sign of movement. If not, then the problem is between the lever in the cabin and the cable end in the cabin. If so, then you can identify what happened at the transmission end of the connection. If you want to drive it safely the connection break has to be repaired. It would be possible to put it in drive by hand but it would be a bit hazardous to not be able to shift it into neutral if you needed to do that on the way home.
