Thread: Shifter not coming out of Neutral

Oh, junk yard lol, sorry I was half asleep when I read that...well there's 4 nuts I see holding the whole mechanism in, the 2 at the top which I've removed easy then these 2 at the bottom which seem not to remove so i may just have to break the plastic to get the bottom to separate

maybe a nut on the bottom?

How did the tow truck drop it off? Did they roll it off the bed or was something else done to move it to your drive? Hell, just try pushing your car and see if it fights back.

It's two nuts from top and two from bottom then the whole shifter unit comes out I can try to snap a pic of mine that's laying around later

It was pulled onto a flat bed, then I got into it and held the brake while he released it and drifted it backwards to its resting spot. Neutral or reverse would allow this right, since it was drifting backward? However it was pushed off the street forward, I just don't get why the reverse light comes on when I turn the key if it was stuck in any other gear, so I assumed it must be stuck in reverse.

I got both nuts at the top of easy, but the ones at the bottom shown in the pic above are different. Showing a Allen wrench socket and oval wedged between those plastic bumps I assume so you can't turn them. Should I just break those bumps so it can rotate to loosen then?

check under the car to see if there are nuts on the other side you can take off....prolly need a buddie to use the allen wrench to keep the top from moving.

if it rolled forward and backward easily with the shifter in it's current position the inside of the trans might be f-ed up

I don't think you can get to anything from underneath, like I don't think it goes through. I'm just gonna break it off and put my own screws in if I need to. Well even if something inside the tranny got damaged how would that cause the shifter to bend and not allow the button to be pressed, I think that's the issue I gotta fix before I rule the tranny busted. I mean all the car did was slide and the back end bounced off the guard rail. Could the sliding have damaged the tranny? I did spin a little, but still....guess we'll find out when I get the shifter out. Is there a way to fire up the engine if the tranny was indeed toast so I can decide if it's worth a swap

try the method decribed above to "trick" the ecu into letting you start it...i recomend having it on jackstands to do this.....if it is stuck in a gear you don't want it moving on ya.

absoultle last trick is to turn the key to the "on" position and arc the starter poles somehow.....this is EXTREMELY UNSAFE HOWEVER....possable to really hurt yourself while starting the engine with your arm in the bay and also the amps that your putting right next to your hand

**UPDATE - GOOD NEWS**

So i disconnected the bolt that holds the tranny cable to the actual shifting lever and pushed the cable in (to park) with my hands and the car started right up which I assume means that the actual lever/shifting mechanism is bent to the point that its damaged and stuck. I'm not sure how it happend but now i'm in the market for a new one...anyone got one for cheap? I just need it so I can show this car runs and I might have someone buying it to use as a dirt race track car lol...the damage in the back is to bad to consider fixing and the engine is still in to good of condition to consider junking so looks like thats the next step in the life of this car...cause I could use the money

ALSO, any chance anyone would be willing to throw a radiator drain plug in an envelope and mail it out to me (i assume you could do that since they are small enough to get away with using regular mail so it would be free) cause I lost the plug when I removed it to drain the radiator and I need a new one to plug it up so i can refill it....