Hey everyone, I've got a transmission issue that popped up this morning. I left my house this morning, stopped picked my friend up and continued on to campus. When I i got here and parked my truck it went into park but the selector wouldn't lock into place, so I couldnt get the key out. I tried moving the selector back and forth hoping that it was just a sticky button or linkage, and the selector got stuck in neutral. Now I cant get it out of neutral or get the key out (its currently locked with the key in the ignition).
Hopefully you all have some ideas for me... Thanks!
1997 Discovery, 135000 miles

 

sounds like the selector bolt is loose. you can pop the plastic cover off and take a look, it may just need to be tightened up a bit.

 

pop the top off your gear shift. There is not a nut, it is a pin through the shaft. The shaft is raised when you push your button. Check that all is good there.

Another thing could be if your shift tape is broken. Is the tape at the bottom of the shifter that has the little ball on it torn?

 

just wanted to say thanks for this post. I haven't been able to get the shifter to move past D in a while, so i went to tighten the bolt, and when it didn't work I been to look around to see just how the shifter and linkage worked, and thats when i found a lost set of keys. They were wedged it the way of the little clicker. So now I have the keys and full use of my transmission.

 

tips appreciated.... just kidding.

 

I had the same problem this morning, and this post got me very far on the way to diagnosing / fixing, but not quite there.

Upon lifting the housing around the gear selector, I saw that the plastic piece (white, semi-translucent) was broken. It just looked like a cover, so I'm not sure it is necessary to allow gear selection. Is that true?

When my Disco is in park, pressing the brake will trigger the solenoid to release (or engage... I'm not sure which is which). Whichever it is, I am able to shift from Park to Neutral. However, once in Neutral, I can not continue to shift into Drive.

If I press the round thing in with a screwdriver, then I can continue from Neutral to any other gear. However, if I come back to Neutral then I'm stuck again.

What do you think is my problem? Do I need that plastic cover piece? Bad solenoid (hard to believe that since it works correctly shifting from D to N). Or something else?


Thanks!

-Bob

 

The d1 in the original post and your d2 are different.

For your problem I would test the brake light switch. Not sure what plastic cover you are refering to. Take a pic

 

On the DI, some of then have a nut under the top trim piece on the shifter, some only have clip. If that cable gets slack, that can be a problem.

Solenoid energizes to allow shifter to come out of park. In the deenergized position the pin locks the shifter in park.

There is another interlock for the key release that works only if the transmission is in park.

Both of these work thru the contacts of the transmission selector switch. See the post where Savannah linked in the RAVE page on these. It is on the brake switch thread.

 

@hilltoppersx...

Thanks for the suggestion, here are two pictures. One is my disassembled shifter. You can see the pin pushed out, as it is in park with no brake applied. When I hit the brake, the pin goes in, which leads me to believe the brake light switch is OK. Not sure if that's an errant conclusion, but it makes sense to me.

The second picture is the "shrapnel" I found from what looks to be a once-useful plastic piece. The circle shaped part looks like it held the prong in while the car is in neutral.





@ Danny Lee ==> thanks for the advice, I will look at that post. On second thought, I'm not sure what post you mean. Any chance you can link me?


Thanks again, guys.

 

Savannah's post is this one, right?

I'm still thinking it has to do with that plastic piece. It really looks like replacing it might solve my issue and be an easy fix. Now I just need to find one. :-)