My '93 pickup is suddenly having trouble shifting into gear. With the selector all the way over to Park, the trans is still in Reverse or Neutral. With the selector all the way over to the other side, the trans is in Drive. It doesn't go far enough to get into Park or 2. For the moment, I'm parking it in Neutral with the brake on.

Once it is in Reverse or Drive, it works just fine. It shifts up through the gears in Drive and even goes into OD like it's supposed to, so it should be something simple.

I checked out the linkage, having seen those get out of whack before, and it all looked good. The problem seemed to be with the little arm on the tranny that the linkage attaches to. I disconnected the linkage from it so I could move it by hand, and it has a LOT of free play in it. By hand, it goes into all the gears, from Park all the way down to 2. That just requires more travel than the shift linkage can give it.

Any ideas what I should be looking for when I drop the pan on this thing in a couple days? Automatics are not my forte, this being the first I've owned, but if it's something simple like a loose nut or bolt, I can handle that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

did this happen all of a sudden?

there's a nut on the inside of the case at the end of the shift linkage. that may have backed off. easy enough to tighten.

did this happen all of a sudden?

there's a nut on the inside of the case at the end of the shift linkage. that may have backed off. easy enough to tighten.

Yep, one day it was fine, next it was like this.

My Google-ing turned up a pic of an aftermarket shift input shaft, which showed me there are nuts on both ends of that shaft. That's exactly what I was hoping to see. Hopefully it won't be too hard to get to.

The truck was probably overdue for a fluid and filter change, anyway.

Thanks.