I have gone through 3 after-market shifter cables and am tired of installing, un-installing & returning the POS cables to the local auto parts store ...... does anyone know the GM part number that I need ????

Car has 2004r but uses the same cable as I used with my 350c) .....

 

Have you considered just getting one through one of our many vendors? I'm sure vendors like Wilcox will have the correct cable for you.

 

Thought about it, but will have to deal with shipping the stuff back IF there quality issues with those .....

 

You need to verify that you have a good engine ground on the car! In the early 80’s GM produced a service bulletin about this problem.

If you have a poor engine ground, the car will attempt to use the shift cable as the ground. This will cause premature failure in the shift cable. This was even more common on the F body series cars vs. the Corvettes. However, noticing your modifications done to the car you may have this problem.

Try running a new ground from the engine to the frame before you replace the cable again, I’m pretty sure doing so will solve your problem.

Regards,

Willcox Inc.

 

Interesting and I would never have thought about that, but the previous failures were the inside "sheath" that were crimped onto tranny end of cable (inside of boot) would come loose and cause the cable to crimp instead of push/pull properly. This time though, it is something else as the cable has either broken altogether or maybe something snapped at shifter end .... will get the center console tore apart and take a look and update.

I guess I can take a run of engine with cable disconnected to test the engine ground theory????

 

Tom,

Today I called an old employee ours who worked in the parts department at the dealership for over thirty years. I knew he would remember this better than me.

He told me he was not sure about a service bulletin being issued and reminded me that I still had all the original bulletins. He said to check it and see, but these bulletins are bound in the order in which they were sent out to the dealers. He did state that if the engine was ground poor, it would use the cable for a ground which would heat up the cable and cause it to bind in the sheath. The end result was failure of the cable in he went on to elaborate about selling the same cable to one customer four times before he finally added a ground from the engine to he frame.

Interestingly, I’ve I have learned today that Dorman and Motor mite version of this cable is on backorder! I’m out of this part number; CA and CC are both out of it. It is on backorder until mid September. I’m not saying the stock level is related to the problem you are having, or to a defect in the part, but it could be. The only other alternative would be the OEM cable.

I'm still digging and if I find anything out for you I'll let you know.

I would not rule out the ground theory. I do know for sure the F body had this problem big time and I have seen this happen in another Corvette.

I stopped your order per your instructions today too!

Willcox Inc.

 

Makes alot of sense to me. That is a great tip

 

Tried to find the P/N for you in my IPC
It's shown in the illustrated portion But when you go to the Parts list 4.047 theres nothing. It jumps from 4.045 to 4.050

 

Philip I know your going to take your hand and hit your head like dang I knew that....remember there are several 4.000 sections.You want automatics 68-82.......the GM number is 357746

 

Roger,

I hate that! I can't tell you how many times I've done the exact same thing.

On a sad note: The illustrious GM gods have decided not to make 357746 any longer. I checked today and it is discontinued, there is no more stock in any GM warehouse. I also ran it on our national locator system and there were no dealers in the country with stock.

I guess its back to Dorman and hope that if there is a problem with this product they will correct it.

Willcox Inc.

 

That really blows big! So what does one do now? Is there a way to get ahold of anyone at Dorman to see if there is information on their cable (and why it isn't available anywhere, problems etc)???

 

Tom,

I was out all day today, but I will see if I can find anything out tomorrow.

 

I'm not sure exactly what is happening to your cables but could there be something about the 2004r changeover that could be putting this cable in a bad position causing the failure?

 

Not sure about that either, but I used same cable that I had on 350c and it installed without any problems, no excessive bends nor did I have to muscle anything .....

 

This is correct, I was a Pontiac tech in the early '70's and this was a common problem when customers replaced their own cables. I don't recall any bulletin. I always replaced the ground straps on every cable job, and the parts guys advised to install new straps when selling over the counter.

Make sure your engine to frame grounds are clean and use a good size wire or copper strap.

 

Sounds like good advice. I will take the ground strap off, clean areas good and make sure they are bolted on tight ......

 

I argee cleaning all grounds is definitely worthwhile and should be done in this case but in my gut I feel you have another problem.Corvettes being plastic have lots of extra grounds going to the frame and engine and in your 80 the floor pan is metal.I'm trying to invision what items would be going to ground through the cable which is mounted to the floor pan.The floor pan is grounded in a number of places.There are some really small grounds that if called on for a heavy load should have already shown signs of burning and melting.You mentioned checking the ground through the shifter cable.I would do that before cleaning your other grounds.Remove one end of the cable completely and put a meter across and see if you have flow.If you do great fix your grounds and add a few(cant have too many grounds).I'm cleaning out my shed and since I've parted out a few cars I should come across a couple cables.If I do I'll let you know.But we gotta make sure its a bad cable problem and not something else causing the failure.

 

I had the same problem with a replacement Dorman cable, the crimp on the shaft where the cable runs through to shift the tranny kept breaking loose. I finally found an old used one that I cleaned up, lubed, and used the dust boot off the Dorman one to make it work. The new Dorman is still hanging on the wall of my shop, I could not find anyway to make the two sheaves recrimp to hold together. It was dangerous too as it would not shift the car into park, only to reverse! The shifter would be in Park, but the tranny was in reverse...... Good luck with it.

 

Yep.. Sure did..It was late & I had a few cold ones. Thanks Dave

 

L82Shark - exactly same problem ..... I take it you have not had any issues since getting the used OEM cable???