My wife calls and said her '94 automatic was broke. She said she put the truck in drive at the store and a short fat bolt fell out from the steering column. She picks the bolt up and drove home. She pulls up to the mailbox and checks the mail and put the truck in reverse to back up from the mail box to the driveway. She went to put it back in drive and it would not go. She could hit reverse and after several attempts was able to get it in first and park the truck.

I'm stuck on the ambulance for 72 hours and can't get home until Friday, so I'm stuck guessing. I am guessing that a bolt came out of the shift linkage? She said the gear indicator is working. If it is the linkage, how hard is it to get to? Any diagrams I could look at?

Thanks in advance. I think this may be my first time on here with a real issue.

 

Might be one of the bolts that hold the shift cable in place, but I'm just guessing. I have a full diagram of the steering column, If you can get a picture of it and post it might be able to figure what it is and where it goes.

 

Wish I could. Maybe I can figure it out when I get home Friday.

 

Under the dash at the end of the column you will see a plate that attaches to the column that the cable attaches to. There are only 2 bolts that hold that plate on. They have a habit of falling out, put a little blue Loctite on the threads and tighten them.

They are torx head bolts.

The plate I'm talking about is circled.

 

Thank u! I'll check that out.

 

Rnlcomp...thanks big time! My son went to the house after I forwarded the diagram to him and he was able to fix the linkage you had circled and got her truck back on the road. Your awesome.

 

Happy to help.

 

Great job!!

 

Shucks tweren't nuttin' I use to reinstall those plates on a weekly basis at my dealer.

I know of some unscrupulous shops that would charge people 2-300 bux claiming a broken shift doohickey whatchamacallit then all they would do is reach up up under there and tighten those bolts.

I couldn't do that and sleep at night, jassacks like those kind give good mechanics a bad rep.

Very common problem for those style columns.

 

Thanks again Rnlcomp. This post just solved my shifting problem.