dennis50nj

if i remember correctly it just pops pry's off and pops back on when ready

biggerjer

Thanks,
That's how it looks like it works, I don't see any external clip to remove. New shifter has not arrived yet so I have plenty of time to devise a careful way to pop it off gently.

biggerjer

You were absolutely correct, gentle persuasion with a large flat blade screwdriver tool it off. Autopsy of the old shifter to follow in a new thread.

dennis50nj

I wouldnt even put a new shifter in, cut break or tie the loc arm back, the advantage to this is never be stuck in park again looking like a fool with a beautiful corvette and cant move, you can put the car in neutral and push without running the battery dead while ignition is off, its great for getting in a trailer without being stuck in the car. and you save the price of the shifter that will go bad again

biggerjer

I agree in general, initial failure analysis on my old one is that the solenoid is fine
problem appears to be either of the micro switches on front of shifter that sense when it is in Park (their only function) I believe that they are responsible for the put in park error messages and the inability to kill the accessory sw after you get it unstuck which was my main complaint. The two switches are not activated on my old unit when in park unless I forcefully jam the stick forward. I will cut the locking pawl off the new one with a dremmel as a foolproof against future solenoid failure on the new one.
Thanks for your help and advice.
Jerry

dennis50nj

Anytime

fitsback

is it my understanding that if the car sits a lot i will continue to have the problem with my c6 sticking in park????

biggerjer

In my case it didn't seem to matter if it sat a while or was cold or hot.
If this part/system has failed once it will fail again, usually at the worst possible time. I think I ruined my shifter trying to force it out of park
when it stuck the first time. I would get messages to put it in park and was unable to turn off the accy. mode because the two micro switches were no longer engaged when it was in park.
I would suggest that you do the wire back job on that locking pawl now before you also need to replace a shifter as I did.

GuyFromLeMans

Worth every minute of your time pulling the center console as opposed to coughing up a grand for a new shifter...

biggerjer

I was actually able to procure a new in box OEM shifter from a dealer
in Penn. for around $200 shipped to AZ. Wired the new one back before installing it.

GuyFromLeMans

Yeah, but not sure if I would trust my D.I.Y. abilities to tackle this one.... how involved is it? Is it all done from inside? or underneath the car?

EVRose

I had the failure to recognize park situation happen to me one time. That plastic plunger inside the shifter shaft was not moving up and down freely. If it is stuck downward at all the car thinks its not in park. I shot some electronic parts cleaner in there to free it up and move smoothly and that solved it.

biggerjer

Hi Guy,
Have a look at the postings at the start of this thread, there are good pix and detailed instructions, I also found an excellent video on console removal at youtube by googling it. The video is for a manual trans but is good. Other pix and instruction at some of the boot vendors like dsvettes.com. I did my mod on the bench to a new one, had a bit of trouble with the little red needle getting it back in place on the shift rod
easy other than that. Good luck.

biggerjer

Not sure why it did but glad that helped, the two micro switches that do that are at the forward end of the shifter and sense when it is all the way forward. your cleaner probably freed the old grease on the rack enough for the rod to move farther forward and allow the plunger to engage and hold it there. My old one would engage there but wasn't far enough forward anymore to engage either of the switches due to my lack of gentle persuasion when it stuck.

GuyFromLeMans

Duh.... forgot this thread had a page 1, thanks, but I was asking out of curiosity only: I completed the "dog-tie-back" method on mine last year. Nothing but smooth shifting since.

0Killrwheels@Autogeek

Take a moment and log in your shifter issue with the NHTSA at www.safercar.gov . GM has recently admitted to severe cost cutting during the years prior to bankruptcy. Now they have issued a recall on Saturns for auto transmissions and shifter cables, more to follow. These repairs on the Vette were hidden under warranty repair, and just now are seeing more complaints.

The part is culprit and the design is flawed. The shift to park feature is a safety issue to prevent rolling. The shifter solenoid goes bad, the entire shifter requires replacement. If you apply any pressure when locked you will damage the shifter cable also. This costs 1000.00 or more for repair at most local dealers. Sure you can use a method to override this, but how about reselling a car with knowledge that a safety feature was defeated ???

gej

works the same as the connector for the linkage on a tailgate latch on a truck, If I remember correctly.

biggerjer

Gej
That is absolutely correct, see reply and answer above in this thread.
This repair went very well and is working great now.
Thanks for your reply.

C5pilot

You are correct, however...

GM = They only make things right when they're FORCED by law. (Isn't it nice to know they continue to have RECORD BREAKING profits while WE, the tax payers who paid for their bailout, are out billions from the sale of their stock. Yes, .gov is the major contributor at fault but...)

That being said, in my state, private citizens are under no obligation to restore cars to their factory condition prior to sale. Safety feature or not, all used cars are "SOLD AS IS", unless stated otherwise. Cars cannot be expected to stay in factory condition forever. It's up to the buyer to decide whether it's worth the risk of buying a used vehicle.

In the end, most of us aren't willing to replace the components for the same reason GM hasn't as of yet... They're too expensive for the function they serve AND there is no guarantee the replacements won't fail because GM has not admitted there is any problem to fix.

The funny part is, my shifter was replaced years ago because of the the "shift to park" issue, and now I'm faced with this new added feature after my warranty has expired.

gej

I did report my low beam light failure on the safety web site. I really thought it would not matter. But low & behold, there was enough people that complained that they admitted to it some 9 years later. I wish I could thank everyone for reporting the issue. Most of all thanks to the nice people on this forum for giving individuals power. And to all the not so nice people, if they would bear with the newer members of the forum, instead of getting on the post and acting like a bully, we could all learn even more.