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It is not happening with my original '69 interlocking spiral-wound cable. Lever is moving nicely since all the crud was cleaned out and the lever oiled. The wire cable moves freely inside the spiral-wound sleeve but I am pretty confident now that the kink at the end where the loop connects to the reverse shift linkage is never going to allow this system to function right.
Cable will not return to full retraction in reverse gear like in the Alan71 photos (photo #2) that 71 Green 454 passed along. My cable still has about 1/8" plus more distance to retract and will only get there by pulling on the steering column level as general ike suggested. It's a whole lot better and very close to neutral position so I can get the keys out of the ignition but still no cigar without a slight pull.
Moving on to Bergerboy's suggestion and replacing the interlocking steering column cable.
Assuming that at some point a prior owner attempted to force the cable to push the column lever all the way up and the cable kinked....then probably disconnected the loop from the lever on the steering column and left it that way. I think the best option now is to replace it.
Is it possible to reverse the cable end for end on the standard shift? Probably wouldn't help but it might pull that kink into the sleeve rather than pushing it in)
M
Mine is hard to pull out of reverse,I have always blamed the lock out cable.
maybe I am mistaken and it is still out of adjustment a little. I don’t know.
KS, same thing happened on my '69. Car sat for 30 years and cable grease froze inside the sheath. Someone tried to force it and then the cable kinked under compression, and it's strength was gone. Solution was a repro cable from on the Corvette parts houses. New one's been working great for 10 years.
Mine is hard to pull out of reverse,I have always blamed the lock out cable.
maybe I am mistaken and it is still out of adjustment a little. I don’t know.
Hi JBrooke825,
When I started troubleshooting mine, it was very hard to get mine out of reverse too. In my case, removing the loop from the steering column lever and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, and oiling the steering column lever itself really improved the amount of effort it took to pull the shifter out of reverse. It pulls out of reverse pretty easy now, only a slight bit of effort needed.
Let’s hope that the quality of the new cable is there and fit and function properly!!!! Ike
Good Morning Ike,
I am a little leery of new reproduction cables based on experiences with repro part quality but it is still an option. Looks like Chris Hewitt went that route in his post with good results...of course, that was a repro part from 10-years ago so I'm still leery. I had better luck with repro parts 10-years ago than repro parts today.
I have contacts that have the 69-76 original interlocking cable so I will try that first. I trust the quality of original parts more than new repro parts. It will be several days before I have the original cable so moving on to other things on my restoration list.
Good luck. Update us when you resolve it for future reference. New and NOS parts can be hit or miss but NOS are a far better bet. You have inspired me to dissemble my setup further to see if I can make it more reliable. Ike
Last edited by general ike; Nov 11, 2021 at 09:18 AM.
Is it possible to reverse the cable end for end on the standard shift? Probably wouldn't help but it might pull that kink into the sleeve rather than pushing it in)
M
Hi Mooser,
Had not considered that, will give it a try. I think the damage (kink) to the cable may have compromised the cable's fully extended range of motion but it's easy enough to find out. Steering column lever is moving nicely now so it does not take as much force to move the lever into the neutral position to unlock the ignition switch.
Years ago i ordered a new unit, as I had the same problem of a kinked cable end. The one I bought was very good quality for sure, however, after many attempts to get it hooked up, the end that goes to the lever on the column absolutely would not reach! I tried and tried to move the steering wheel, clock it, adjust it, but could not. Grrrrrr. Finally, I 'engineered' a Bubba part for that end, always intending to approach this problem again. Have not gone into it again, but what I have done is working so............. left it for bigger problems
Replacement spiral-wound cable arrived from a donor '69 car, cable is in nice shape, cable moves freely, no kinks. Spent some time cleaning and oiling the cable. Removed the 1-2 and 3-4 shifter rods from the tranny linkage to make it a little easier to attach and position the new cable. Cable installed okay. Reattached the shifter rods to the linkages. Cable moves okay but is still 1/16" from the swivel-bowl on the steering column returning to neutral position without a very slight counter-clockwise manual assist with my left hand in order to remove the key from the ignition. More work to do.... sure was hoping it would work perfectly and I could move on to other items. Beside more cable adjustments that need to be made, the Reverse shifter now does not unlock and release completely going back to Neutral. Now I'll have to spend time making adjustments to the linkage too.
Might move the shift linkage from long-throw to short-throw since I need to make adjustments anyway. Anyone do that to their car? Any reason NOT to do that? Would like to have the car NCRS judged at some point....perhaps I need to leave it long-throw for that reason?
New '69 donor cable installed, it has full travel range of motion and I can now get the key out of the ignition switch with the car in reverse. Have cycled through the pattern a dozen times or so of insert key, unlock ignition, shift out of reverse to neutral, ratchet through the 1-2-3-4 shift pattern and return tranny to reverse and remove the key from the ignition. Wow, was that fun.
I pulled the shifter rod on reverse linkage and adjusted the swivel a tad with the tranny in neutral. At the same time, always wanted to do it so today was the day, I also moved the 1-2 shifter rod and the 3-4 shifter rod from long-throw position on the tranny linkage to the short-throw position. Shifter ratchets through 1-2-3-4 just fine and finds reverse like it should.
