help please

i have a 96 lumina 3.1 and to get it into gear you have to put it in neutral and rock the car back and fourth a few times til it clicks then you can go in drive reverse does not work at all and you have to do that everytime you want to drive i need help

the first thought that comes to mind is that YOUR TRANNY BIT THE BIG ONE
if you are lucky,you can buy some anti-slip conditioners,lucas oil is one of the many manufacturers that make this stuff for backyard mechanics{lol}
try that and if it works SELL,SELL,SELL.
ive also heard cases of too much oil in trans will cause it not to work propperly,but ive only heard,not experienced
if u want to keep it,get it fixed,if not sell it

When you rock it and make it click, is that with the motor running?

Does the shifter move easily, or have a lot of resistance?

When you rock it and make it click, is that with the motor running?

Does the shifter move easily, or have a lot of resistance?


Yes the car has to be running, and once you get it into drive you gotta keep it there, if it goes back into park you have to start all over and reverse only works every once in a while and it moves kinda easy but i think it is messed up to cuz the red thing will be in drive and a yellow one in neutral.

It almost sounds like it's just indexed wrong or the selector cable is stretched or frayed...

What happens if you pull it down into one of the lower gears, instead of drive? Still have to rock it?

Does park hold it like it should?

Can it be started in nuetral?

i have not tried to start it in neutral but no you have to rock it to get it into any gear

See I was wondering if you are dealing with a cable so frayed, it's stretching like a rubber band...when you try to put it in gear from park, it stretches instead of having enough pull to disengage the park pawl...so you have to rock it, to get the bind off the pawl, then the cable is able to pull the selector on the tranny and you hear the click of the pawl disengaging and the linkage moving finally...

But it would seem if this were the case, you'd feel a kind of "sprung" sensation in the shifter when pulling it down into gear, until the pawl releases and it allows the cable to move the selector...

http://www.autozone.com/images/cds/gif/medium/0900823d800edc02.gif

Here is how the cable relates to the selector on the case...have someone pull it down into gear from park, while you watch the selector lever and see if it actually moves, or stays stuck until you rock the car..

When you rock it to get it in gear, is it still in park until it clicks, and you are just rocking back and forth against the park pawl, or will it roll?

This is very important, and will probably unravel the mystery...

I can't think of any reason why a tranny would get stuck to where it has to be rocked into gear...nothing moves in the tranny when rocked that affects internal clutching, etc...so I have to assume this is a selector/cable issue...

hey thanks for your help, you have to rock it in neutral it will not do anything in park, and the shifter is kinda outta wack to like park will be colored yellow while reverse is red and it does that as you move it through the gears.

What I'm asking is:

Will the motor start in the neutral positon? (it should)

Does park hold the vehicle from moving like it should?

Try this: Before putting the shifter in park, set the emergency brake firmly. Then put it in park.

If my theory is correct, the parking brake will prevent the park pawl from engaging (the slight click you normally hear after the car rolls a few inches before park engages and holds it) and that lack of additional bind on the cable may allow you to move it out of park and into gear engagement without rocking the car. If so, the cable is fragged. If not, I'm stumped.

If this gets you nowhere, I would disconnect the shift cable from the selector lever on the tranny, and see if each range can be selected with the cable out of the picture by moving the selector lever....especially to see if reverse can be selected...

yes it can be started in neutral and park does hold it,,,, i got it to go into reverse twice today in a row by rocking it in neutral then shifting to reverse but only could get it to do it twice. when it was in reverse today and i was backing up i could hear this grinding noise?

Well I'm at a bit of a loss...grinding would probably be a clutch pack noise but I'm really confused about why rocking it makes a difference...would be nice if it was just a selector/cable issue but it's sounding more and more like it's not...

That's why I was wondering if it would start in neutral and hold in park...if it was stretching or indexed wrong it should have a problem doing one or both...

Grating or grinding sounds are generally a bad omen in an auto trans...clutchpack or planetary gear having problems, etc...

I think I'd get it into one of those tranny shops that does a free code scan and road check...see what they make of it...I'm outta my league here I think...