I was proud owner of that car for 34 years and only sold it to make room for the 07 vert my wife wanted. The first owner was Linda Gonzales who bought it after graduating from Texas A&M as their first female chemical engineering graduate. After a year and 18k miles, she was transferred by Union Carbide from the Seadrift plant to a sales job in Chicago where she got a company car and was politely instructed not to make the mistake of bringing the vette to Chicago as it would not last long on the streets there. I was still in engineering school when I bought it from her mother in Dallas in Dec 1972. The old car is still looking good. My only regret about buying that car was that it was an auto. My first car was a 327 Camaro 3-speed stick and I really missed shifting gears but my highest priority in buying my dream vette was finding a clean low mileage car with as few door dings as I could locate.

 

I apologize, I am struggling with this site. My question was why did you drill the hole, in order for it not to stick in park?

 

Now a quick reply box pops up??

I apologize, I am struggling with this site. My question was why did you drill the hole, in order for it not to stick in park?

 

So you can put a wire through it to tie it back and out of the way.

 

I tried to explain that to him in post #71 in as simple a way as I could. I don't get why he doesn't understand it.

 

JCM, thanks for that history! I have printed it out and added it to the full packet of detailed info you passed along when Dupree bought it. I know it was well-maintained and cared for. Hope to meet up someday!

 

RICH28, EVRose, and GOLD72: IF you're interested, I took the C6 in to the dealer this morning for the low-beam recall (13146) and asked them to check out the shifter problem. Since it was intermittent, and recycling through a few starts and shutdown have done the trick for me so far, and thanks to all of your helpful comments and advice, it seemed to me that this was a solenoid issue, or a circuitry issue that energized the solenoid. Just got a call back, it was NOT the shifter cable, that was fine (for NOW, lol!), but the shifter assembly. NATURALLY you can't replace just a piece of it, the whole thing has to be swapped out, just like so many other things these days, entire modules, not just module components.

So I get the little beastie back this afternoon, relieved it will not (knock-knock) leave me stranded and stuck in PARK somewhere. For now.

I have printed out and filed your several pieces of advice and remedies, and thank you for sharing and helping with your time and knowledge!

I am curious if anyone has encountered this PARK issue with an A6 C7???

Thanks again, Waves your way!

 

Going back thru all the posts, don't you understand that GM is replacing it with the "SAME" POS that's breaks down? There are only 2 ways to fix it...TIE OFF or CUT OFF...not replace with the same.

Hope that helps!

Sparky

 

Got Corvette back, parked in driveway, opened garage door, now the gear selector moves but I AIN'T GOT NO GEARS! Shift cable, which they said was "just fine", apparently "just broke". Sending flatbed to pick it up now. Crap.

 

Sparky, the solenoid was fritzing out about 1 of every 3 starts, so figured shifter assembly needed replacement, even though the DIY fix probably would have sufficed. Live and learn.. NOW the cable breaks, so it needs replacing, too. Don't you just love donating to the General?

Will be doing the DIY when I get it back, $800+ poorer. Not sure how we're going to resolve the cable breaking liability since the tech said it was "just fine"...

 

Wow, you are lucky that it broke at home. Dealer will probably charge you another $500 for the new cable installed. See if you can fight that charge and get a discount. Please keep us updated, and good luck to you.

 

You know Crush2, I was really lucky that I had a "vette owner live close by that was able to fix mine.

 

I can pretty much assure you that the old brittle cable end grommet got a measure of stress and permanent deformation when the dealer removed the old shifter module and installed the new one. If the grommets were separate parts available thru GM, then a new grommet should have been installed with the new shifter. But dealer can't replace only the grommet as they can only source the entire cable with an additional high labor cost. Grommets can be bought at Autozone. Dealer screwed up thinking it was still good. We know here on the Forum that these grommets are never "good" after a few years of thermal aging. The whole solenoid and cable grommet problems as a DIY is less than $10.

 

I don't own a C7 but I am pretty sure the shifter module shifts the transmission via a mechanical cable so I fully expect the first years production of auto C7 will see these same grommet failures as the cheap plastic thermally ages after 4 or 5 years. I will never order another auto vette!!

 

Likewise!!!

 

The latest: Flat-bedded the C6 back to shop at closing time, off-loaded directly into a Corvette bay for first attack this AM, then got a ride home with my service rep and BOTH of us forgot about leaving the fob at shop. Oy! Shuttle driver came back to get it this AM so the tech could get back into it and diagnose. Well, as Gomer would say, "Surprise, surprise, surprise!" Yep, shifter cable was broken. $500 job. They knew I was unhappy, so service rep (who drove me home last night since the shuttle driver had already left for the day) said, "We'll do it for $211 to address your time and headaches", which I thought was appropriate, "...and of course we will pay for the towing from your house back to shop." That's a DUH to me, but welcomed.

When I first climbed in to drive it home the first time yesterday, I could tell it also had a new shift ****, because the button in it had been a tiny bit loose and would occasionally rattle annoyingly, which I usually fixed temporarily with a toothpick or small cardboard piece. There is a separate piece from a number of yrs ago on forum about how to remove the button and stretch the spring a little to remediate that, but it's feels solid with the new one and I like that.

In retrospect, I would be about $1000 richer if I had had the cojones to attempt the DIY fix you guys have described so well above, but I am not that confident in my ability to not break something else along the way, lol, which is what often happens when I think "Oh, I can surely do -that-."

So right now I am waiting for the call that it is finished and ready to pick up. But I think since this issue may well pop up again, I am going to ask my brother-in-law if can help me go the DIY route when I visit him soon. He's a retired nuke engineer and former prez of NCRS, pretty much a mech genius around cars.

Thanks everyone for the help and communication, and yes, the General should fix the stupid problem with NEW materials and components, but...

 

Thanks for the update. I think the dealer gave you a fair discount. So you should be good for a while.

 

I am going to try this fix this week. I have a 2005 with an A4. My only question: Is it required to remove the shift **** and boot?

 

You do not need to remove the ****. You DO need to lift the plastic frame that the boot is attached to. You can see how its done in my pics.

 

I am to the point of trying to lift the console. I have attached a pic. Do I need to pull the console away from the radio and air conditioning vents?