Help! Can't Shift From Park Into Drive

[JasonNOLA]

Hoping to find an easy answer....because I am supposed to leave for a trip tomorrow.

My '93 Itasca V6 3.0 will not shift into from park into drive. I have tried a lot of "jiggling" but do not want to break anything. It simply will not budge when I try to shift into drive from park. The engine sounds strong. All electrical is working...just will not let me slide into drive.

Any ideas about this? Is there some trick I am not aware of with these Toyota trucks. My fingers are crossed!

Thank you!

[rad wolfe]

if you have parked on a slope and havent set your parking brake before putting the tranny in park, you may have it hung up on the pawl.you may have to have the vehicle slightly pushed to release the tension before you can move out of park.

[linda s]

Don't know if yours is the same problem but the owner of the Toyota Yahoo group had his stuck for a while. Here is how he fixed it

"Your problem is that the brake safety lock mech which will does not let the shifter out of park unless the brake pedal is depressed is stuck in the steering column.

Take the plastic dash trim on the bottom of the driver's side off.

Lay upside down on the driver's seat with your head at the pedals.

You will see a cable that comes down from the left side of the steering column and goes into the brake pedal housing. When you depress the pedal you will see a cable pin that moves as the pedal arm is depressed

Remove the cable/housing from the brake pedal. DO NOT MESS WITH THE ADJUSTMENT nuts, just remove the cable.

Grab a small ball peen hammer and thump on the end of the cable a few times, lightly driving it back inside the housing.

this should dislodge the lock in the steering column.

You need the key turned on for the lock pin to come out.

Mess with it until it comes loose.

The other option is to drop the steering column and replace the lock mech.

This happened to me last year. I am sure that when I go back out again this year it will once again be stuck in park and I will have to go through it all once more.

here is the page out of the service manual which might not help much but will show you what I am talking about

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/toyota-campers/photos/album/258598986/pic/83822373/view?picmode=large&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=21&dir=asc

turtle"

Linda S

[Vanman]

Pumping hard on the brake pedal has done it for me on the TOY and my Subaru.

A friend said to try chocking the wheels so it won't go anywhere and shut motor off. Then turn ignition switch to run and pump brakes, then whilst still pushing down hard on the brake pedal start the motor, the pedal should go down more as you now have vaccumm assist. Haven't tried this myself, hoping not to have to.

vanman

[turtle]

If you can't get your column shift out of park the mech in the column is sticky.

This is one of those "protect you from yourself" safety features.

Two things need to happen before you can take the vehicle out of park

#1 The key must be in the "run" position. This will disengage the steering wheel lock and let the brake safety switch become disengaged when you depress the brake peddle

#2 The brake pedal must be depressed which disengages the shift lock.

If #1 works and #2 doesn't it is real pain.

Typically this is from lack of use. My Sunrader had under 30k miles on it when I purchased it. The column lock got stuck the first year I owned it and the Sunrader sat in my garage for a full year while I "fought" with the shift lock mech.

The worst thing was it started acting up when we were way off the grid in the UP of Michigan and the moose, wolves, and deer were of little help in fixing it

Removing the cable from the brake pedal housing will NOT fix the issue as the real problem is the steering column not the brake pedal or cable.

The "fix" is to use your RV frequently. If you're on the road when this happens you "can" shut it off in neutral which will stop the park lock from engaging. .....BUT...... you can't pull the key out with the shifter in neutral......

So far I have not found a way round this as the floor shift steering column and the column shift steering column are too different to disassemble both types and get a column shift with NO shift lock.

I did look into trying to adapt the electric/relay type floor shift lock to the column shift so I could use a dash switch to lock and unlock the shift lever but here again the physical steering columns are just too different between the electronic shift lock of the floor shifter and the mechanical/cable shift lock of the column shift steering column.

So after a few years I still have no "real/permanent" fix for this problem

The link Linda posted to the toyota-campers yahoo group photo section requires you to be a member so I've uploaded the page from the factory service manual to my photobucket account so that you can view it here

http://i1066.photobucket.com/albums/u414/turtle-web/RV/sunrader/brake-park_lock_zps2d535a7c.jpg

turtle

[JasonNOLA]

Well, it was something electrical....I think. After checking the battery cables and, honestly, just tinkering and making sure everything was connected, it magically and easily shifted into Drive. I even turned it off and let it sit for another hour, just to see if I was dreaming. Yep, slipped right into Drive, Reverse, and back into Park as if nothing has ever been wrong. It was the darndest thing. That shifter was not going to budge.

FYI _ I tried the pumping hard on brake pedal and the vacuum assist method and it did not work for me.

As mentioned, it was just something flukey/electrical and we are all good.

Thank you all very much for offering help and suggestions.

[JasonNOLA]

Oh, and Turtle, I agree that lack of use has to be a factor. Unfortunately, our Toy has been sitting for months.

Thanks, again.

[Maineah]

Check your brake lights that was about the time they started to lock out the shifter until you had your foot on the brake. If the brake lights don't burn the interlock will not work.