cant get out of park!

FastBird91

Registered User
I have a 91 SC auto. Yesturday i went to pull out of my garage and it wont shift out of park. Its locked in there as if im not applying the brake and trying to shift it. I made sure my brake lights are coming on in case it was the brake light switch (if they are linked together). What can it be? By the way how do you take off the shifter handle?
Thanks
 
This is what the Owner's Guide says: "If the gearshift lever CANNOT be moved from Park with the brake pedal depressed:
1. Turn the engine off and remove the ignition key.
2. Apply parking brake.
3. Reinsert the ignition key and turn clockwise to the first position (OFF).
4. Depress the brake pedal, move the gearshift lever to Neutral and start the engine."
 
That also happened to me...

Several years ago I had the same thing happen. The shifter seemed to lock in Park. It turned out to be the plastic rod (inside the shifter that pushes the locking latch) had broken. If you push the button on the side of the handle and smack the handle from underneath with your other hand, it will come off. Just be careful not to lose the spring from the button. Once the handle is off you will see a plastic rod in the shifter. Pull it out to see if it is broken. I never found a replacement part, so I went to the hardware store and bought a piece of aluminum rod with the same diameter. I cut it to the correct length and rounded off each end so that it wouldn't bind up. After some fine tuning, it works just fine (for about four years now).
 
All is good, i pulled off the shifter to lock at the plastics, it all looked good so i put it back on and its fixed. It must have been partially pulled off or something like that to make it not engage when i pushed the button in.
Thanks again guys!
 
I know this is an old thread. But I wanted to add my story in case somebody else someday hits this.
My shifter got increasingly difficult to get out of park. Decided to take apart the shifter, removed the T-handle, took the cover off the tunnel from the dash to the console. Took the dust cover sliding plates out thinking they were binding. Played with the shifter by pressing down on the plastic rod and it worked great. No need to tear down further.
To make a long story short, I think either the plastic rod or the internal plastic of the T-handle wore down enough to cause my problems. I can push the plastic rod down and the shifter works flawlessly. I put the T-Handle back on and no luck - stuck in park.
Now I am poking around for a new T-handle/Knob or whatever. For now I will use my thumb on the plastic rod.
Hope this helps somebody.
 
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