4T60E wont shift out of park

[atxjax]

Hi guys,


Noob to the board. Thanks for letting me join. Im trying to figure out a problem with my dads car. When cold it wont shift out of park. Floor shifter 97 malibu with the 3.1L and 4t60E. When warmed up it shifts out of park but at times its hard. what can cause this?

[3100 MPFI]

The button itself does not push down, or the lever does not move?

In my Grandmothers 1999 Grand Am, coffee and coke had spilled down the console, and it was the shifter itself.

The lever not moving could be either the lever itself, or the arm on the tranny. It could also be something in the tranny itself.

Is it the button that does not press, or the lever moving?

[IsaacHayes]

Do you mean it's in gear but just rev's and go's nowhere? Then when it does warm up it slams?

If so go to the dealer, get some "gm automatic transmission seal conditioner" ONLY get the stuff from the dealer. That worked magic on my transmission and another person who recommended it to me. It's been like 4 years and the trans is working great still now. And I beat the hell out of this trans all the time.

[atxjax]

The button itself does not push down, or the lever does not move?

In my Grandmothers 1999 Grand Am, coffee and coke had spilled down the console, and it was the shifter itself.

The lever not moving could be either the lever itself, or the arm on the tranny. It could also be something in the tranny itself.

Is it the button that does not press, or the lever moving?

Thanks for replying. So......the tranny itself once I can get it into gear works fine. Its just that I have a hard time moving it from Park to any of the other gears. The thumb push button is hard and it wont budge until the tranny is warmed up a bit.

One thing I do notice is that when you press on the brake I dont hear the little click in the console. Do you think that maybe the brake switch is bad? or possibly the soleniod inside the console? I guess I'll take it apart this weekend and look at it. Worse comes to worse I can always bypass the solenoid inside the console.

[IsaacHayes]

Ah well it's not the trans then that's good.

It's possible the solenoid is bad. If you have no power from a run down battery you can't shift it out of park either of course which is kind of dumb. It's either that or the switch. But more likely the solenoid since once it's warm the coil probably expands and completes the circuit. (The coil winding might have a crack in it...) I believe the solenoid is in the column not the console. At least on a 97 lumina it sounds from the column area.

I would guess it uses the brake switch and if you have brake lights that light up then you could rule that out but who knows. I would check the solenoid first and see if you are getting volts to it. If so then it's bad.

[atxjax]

Ah well it's not the trans then that's good.

It's possible the solenoid is bad. If you have no power from a run down battery you can't shift it out of park either of course which is kind of dumb. It's either that or the switch. But more likely the solenoid since once it's warm the coil probably expands and completes the circuit. (The coil winding might have a crack in it...) I believe the solenoid is in the column not the console. At least on a 97 lumina it sounds from the column area.

I would guess it uses the brake switch and if you have brake lights that light up then you could rule that out but who knows. I would check the solenoid first and see if you are getting volts to it. If so then it's bad.

I thought the solenoid is int he shift mechanism itself. Since basically there should be a little plunger or stopper that prevents the shifter from moving out of park. Essentially locking it into place.

So here is what Im going to check.

A. Brake switch.....it should send a signal out when the brake pedal is pressed.

B. Solenoid......it should receive a ground signal to open the plunger to let the shifter move out of park once the brake pedal is pressed.


Hopefully that gets me going. Thanks for the input guys....

[IsaacHayes]

Yeah. But it could be on the other end of the shift cable. I know on my shifter there is one cable that runs up to the column, and won't let you move it without the key being in and brake down. Mine is mechanical though. But on the lumina I heard the solenoid in the column area. But I guess if you just wanted to by pass it you could un-hook the cable end that is on the shifter.

[3100 MPFI]

If it is the button that is messed up, then it could be several things.

First of all, you might not have a seperate shift lock solenoid. When I repalced the shifter assembly in my 1995 Cutlass Supreme, I replaced the one with the seperate solenoid with a 2000 Grand Prix shifter assembly that is all one unit.

First of all, I would remove the shifter handle and see if it is just STICKY.

Then I would check to see if the electronics are working right. With the console top off press the brake pedal.

Do several runs. Here is a vid I did of testing the newer setup in my 1995 Cutlass Supreme where I alternate between holding the pedal and pressing the button, then holding the button and seeing if the button goes in as soon as I press the pedal.

Do something similar to this and see what you can make out.

Also, if you can get the top off of your console, I can show you the areas you need to check, or disconnect, or lube, or whatever.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udYTlJkw0iI

And just so you can see what I mean about it all being integrated, this is the newer shifter assembly. As you can see, there is no SEPERATE shifter lock solenoid like the older cars have. If you have a shifter like this, then it might be a little trickier to trouble shoot, but I think I can still help you with it.




As you can see, it only has 1 cable and that is the shifter itself. It does not even have the same cable lock for the ignition key. It took some hard thinking just trying to figure out how to use this in my 1995 Cutlass Supreme.