cplonner

I was driving today and noticed that the shifter floats in between 1st and 2nd gear when shifting manually. I cannot manually down shift to 1st gear. Only second.

When I take off from a dead stop, with the shifter in first gear it will automaticly shift from first to second, then i can manually shift to 3rd.

What could be causing this?

ZumZum

I bet you have what I discovered my shifter was doing. The shifter boot is getting bunched up behind the shifter and not letting you pull the shifter as far back as it should go.

Use your hand and pull up the shift boot before trying to pull it back into 1st.

cplonner

I tried. It still does not seems too "click" into first. But the strange this is that even though it will be on 2nd gear, I can feel it shift from first to second. Then I shift to D/3rd.
I understand what you mean though, becuase my does that a bit. (bunches up)

Pete K

The bolts that hold the shifter cable to the pan loosened or fell out. Or, the nut inside the trans pan at the end of the shifter shaft loosened up, or the bolt that holds the "banana clip" in the trans loosened up. All easy fixes.

janarvae

If you need pictures of any of the above parts, just PM me or post another message to that effect. My 700r4 is completely disassembled, but I took pictures of each step and part. I'm not entirely sure though about what the banana clip is but I probably have a picture of it.

Oh, and maybe a year before this rebuild I had one of the shifter linkage bolts on the tranny pan fall out. I didn't have exactly the same symptoms - my Park did not engage. I jacked it up and saw the bolt was missing and luckily it had fallen out in my driveway. If you lost the bolt completely I can measure mine and get you all the dimensions- thickness, length, head size, etc. Or you could take your other bolt out and it'll be the same. If it is a lost bolt, you can pick one up at Lowes, Home Depot, or any other hardware store for 50 cents or so. For one transmission pan bolt (the ones with washers, which are different than the shifter linkage bolts) I got charged $9 by the local GM dealer.

Jonathan

Pete K

The 2 bolts that hold the cable to the pan are longer than the other 14>
They are M8X1.25 x 30mm

janarvae

I believe the above image is the correct nut, but may be wrong.



I'm sure about these two bolts though.

cplonner

Awsome. Thanks for the help. I have a 24 hour shift tommorow but after I get off im gonna jack up the car and check this out. Hopefully they didnt fall out but I will see.
Thanks guys! Ill let you know the outcome!

cplonner

The outside bolts were loose and I tightened them but there was no change. Ill find time to tighten the inside one at some point. I was thinking about gettting the car dynoed just for fun today.

65Z01

I found that I could loosen the nut that holds the linkage to the rod going into the A4 and slide the linkage a bit to get better coordiantion between the shift indicator and the actual A4 gear selection.

Also, installing a new and softer leather shift boot from Redline now allows me to down shift into 1st and the shifter will stay in that position.