Gearshift(Auto) Nonsense. 97 SW

One day first thing in the morning the gear shift is stiff.. shifting out of P. Went away when the car warmed up. Got worse when it was cold..still went away when warmed up.
I guessed manual valve body/linkage and put some stuff in it. Just a bit. Drove it. Next morning problem solved. Then it came back..more stuff..problem solved. Then it came back and got BAD! as in WAAAY too hard to get it out of park. Still ok when warm. Probabblly exhaust heat thawing it/drying it/expanding it whatever/
I took the console off and it is stiff to move BEFORE the shift cable STARTS to move. Plus you can hear/feel it squeaking.

It looks like there is some sort of a bushing/shaft arrangement at the bottom of the shift lever. The bushings/shaft are probabblly in the shift tunnel on the floor pan. Right?? I dunno

I can't remember?..don't really have time right now..to get it up and look underneath at it. Is there anything under there?? accessible from under the car or is it all coverred? Fill it full of penetrating oil and then pack it full of grease HAHA from the console.
Underneath diito and seal it up with Silicone.

Thanks much!

Im not going to be much help, not having needed to explore the shifter & cable on my 92 Escort -- but, right after I got the car I had to dismantle the console far enough to rinse out a buildup of spilled soda and fruit juices;(due to my sister-in-law's kids). There had made a thick goo down there. I had a shop-vac to suck up the water, then lubed the moving parts before reassembly. I recall that everything was reachable from above. There are bushings that can give way, up where the shifter cable runs forward to the firewall, and in cold/icy climates where salt is put on the roads, the part of the cable that runs to the top of the tranny can get corroded. Also there can be acid based stuff that gets boiled out of the battery, and drips down onto the forward end of the shifter cable. This 'drip' can also corrode the tranny case where the shifter connects to the shifing arm. This is the shaft that sticks up out of the tranny & connects to the shifter cable. You might want to try putting some ATF onto that pivot, if it looks dry and corroded.

Thanks! very much! A LOT of great info/help there.

I suspect some coffee with lots of sugar,cream got spilt there..HAHA. I'll blame my dog.

I have had the console off a few times TOO MANY!..cleaned it sprayed it greased it.
No change.
I got under it..there is some sort of a bolt,nut,plastic housing/pivot. Cleaned lubed it.

I did notice a lot of rust..rustyish liquid..at the bottom of the shift lever. And under the car. I still suspect this is where the trouble is.

I tilted the car and left it on stands to see if some penetrating oil would run down the shift cable.

A few people..seemed more knowledgeable said it was in the valve body. A few others said no way.

One trans shop said it is next to impossible to determine a sticky shift cable on these cars without knowing exactly how hard it is/should be to move the selector lever on the trans with the cable off..both hot and cold.
He said taking off the cable at the trans end and seeing how stiff the shifter is when cold is a waste of time. He said if the shifter is then free..you need to apply just the right amount of pressure on the cable at the trans end to mimic the trans shifter load. He said even a little pressure with a bad cable can cause the cable to bind up..more so when cold. And no pressure can make the cable seem liek new

I am gonna pull this frikin' cable off!!!

Thanks again..

Update:

My next plan was get the car warm,pull the cable off at the trans and see how much torque it took to move the shifter on the trans and the cable. Then compare it when it was cold. I did not get around to this.


THEN..I was at a huge bone yard on an unrelated matter and figured I may as well ask for yet another opinion.

I tell the guy the deal..I bought the car off the original owner,middle aged woman..she had it dealer serviced and had had the transmission serviced..fliter,flush,etc. regulary..several times..the last time was $200 something they charged her for 20 L of trans fluid for flushing too. I have all the receipts. I tell him the problem...

He is pretty confident that HE knows the problem. Old fluid/bad fluid/dirty fluid/crap in the fluid/tranny/filter partially plugged up allowing all the crap in the fluid to allow it to sit that much higher in the pan and trans allowing the crap to stick to the valve body especially when cold.Plus with the old fluid there would be little lubriation when cold as the fluid was worn out. Once hot..it circulates enough and things are ok. (the fluid looked/felt and smelt ok) Last trans service was not very long ago. He said it DID NOT MATTER if they SAID they did the service..and I should get a filter and fluid and FIRST make sure that that part is done.

The pan had never been off this trans. 11 y/o car in the salt capital of the world. I thought a few of the bolts would break..they didn't. I of course had to jack up the trans. to get the pan off. The bolts, heads and right under the heads as well as around the bolt holes in the pan were badly rusted. I will need a new pan. The original factory gaskets on the trans and pan were seriouslly baked and took forever to get off. There was no evidence of any fittings ever removed to flush this thing.

Problem solved.

However..I sure don't have much faith in this trans now. Works perfect though! it is really against my better judgement to drop the pan dump the fluid change the filter like this in an unmaintained trans. Oh well..I didn't really have any choice..it was starting to get cold here.Probablly the first real cold morning would have been the end of this trans.

I guess ya gotta physically get them on a hoist or get under them YOUR SELF or trust..and not get burned..to see that the work has been done.

I never accepted that changing fluid/filter on an old or non-maintained automatic transmission would harm it in ANY way. Someone will have to give me some rationale for that; otherwise I say its likely to last longer with fresh fluid and a new filter - regardless how dirty the oil was or how high the mileage was beforehand. I always figured it was human nature to blame the most recent 'work' for a failure. That is, for someone to get the fluid changed for the first time at 150,000 miles, and when the tranny goes out at 160,000 to blame the new fluid.....or the mechanic... instead of accepting that it may have been ready to die anyway.
I wonder if your shifter cable may have just gotten some moisture in it over the years, and is now getting stiff from the corrosin and hardened grease. I had to replace the shifter cable on a 73 Honda CIVIC. It worked fine for years, then began to get stiff fairly suddenly - in the autumn - in less than a month. One day it became un-moveable. The rather expensive new shifter cable solved the problem completely.
I prefer to buy cars that do not work - and do the fixing myself. Im the only mechanic I can afford, and I put in the hours to have confidence in the resulting car.

I never accepted that changing fluid/filter on an old or non-maintained automatic transmission would harm it in ANY way. Someone will have to give me some rationale for that; otherwise I say its likely to last longer with fresh fluid and a new filter - regardless how dirty the oil was or how high the mileage was beforehand. I always figured it was human nature to blame the most recent 'work' for a failure. That is, for someone to get the fluid changed for the first time at 150,000 miles, and when the tranny goes out at 160,000 to blame the new fluid.....or the mechanic... instead of accepting that it may have been ready to die anyway.
I wonder if your shifter cable may have just gotten some moisture in it over the years, and is now getting stiff from the corrosin and hardened grease. I had to replace the shifter cable on a 73 Honda CIVIC. It worked fine for years, then began to get stiff fairly suddenly - in the autumn - in less than a month. One day it became un-moveable. The rather expensive new shifter cable solved the problem completely.
I prefer to buy cars that do not work - and do the fixing myself. Im the only mechanic I can afford, and I put in the hours to have confidence in the resulting car.

Well..1 afternoon I listened to the most popular radio station in the country with the car show program hosted by the guy who runs/has the best garage in the largest city in the country..rated #1..9 years in a row..and co-hosted by 2 leading authorities on transmissions also running one of the best transmission business around.

They all agreed that what happens is when the trans fluid and filter are suddennly changed..in an unmaintained transmission..sure the bad fluid and the sludge in the pan go..but the new fluid has a very strong detergent effect on everything in the transmission..especially the plates,and valve body. This cleans and frees up the crap in the rest of the transmission to circulate BEFORE it has a chance to get filterred out. The problem is pretty bad for finer newer valve bodies and solenoid packs..as well as newer transmissions with a lot of electronics..and computer controlled much more so. This on the next cold start can and often does drive the line pressures inside the trans through the roof and that is the end of the trans.
They say they see this ALL the time..especially in the fall..right before the first cold snap.
They simply do not reccommend or do trans flush's etc on unmaintained transmissions.
IF someone really wants to do this they reccomnend to siphon out 1 quart..replace it.. drive for a while(several thousand miles)..then do 2..drive for a while..then do all of it..drive for a while..then pull the pan,do the filter,flush the trans and the convertor.
For the next hr on the show caller after caller after caller called in to say that they had had their transmission serviced..fluid..filter..flushed etc and not long after the transmission failed. They also had people call in and say that they thought it was b.s. and they had gone ahead and done it anyway..and lost transmissions.
The co-hosts went on to say on sudden previous no problem transmissions that failed right after fluid..flushing..filters etc they know right where to look and the problem/reasons for failure are pretty much all the same.
Another particular problem they went on to say is that metal wear particles seem to be ok when they are stuck in crap in the transmission..but the big problem is when they are freed up with new fluid,flushes and are now alllowed..sometimes forced by pump pressure to circulate before being filterred or caught by the magnets in the pan.

I dunno..this is a very busy garage and transmission business and a very busy car show on a very busy radio station with a few real experts and this was their reccommendation. SURE! they do reccommend transmission fluid changes,filters,flushes,maintenance..UNDER the right conditions. LOL they SELL them! I don't know why else under these circumstances they would reccommend otherwise. I do not think it was possible that ALL the numerous callers to the show were rigged/or set-up. Why? How? would you ever get anyone to call in and say that LOL. If that EVER got out I guess that would be HUGE trouble for ALL involved.

As for my own cable issue. I had the problem..the problem was getting worse..especially as it got colder. I could not fix it. EVERY MORNING.

I change the fluid(and a Seafoam flush) and NOW ever since..every single morning the shifter feels just the same when it is cold as when it is hot. Just the way it should be.

This is completely un-related to the cable. You still think it is the cable? Maybe a co-incidence? I doubt it. Time will tell.

Dealer only shift cable for this car. Ouch. Special order..$250 smackers. I am sure I could bone one a lot cheaper.

I do all my own work too. Have on and off for about 40 years. Bought cars/sold them/rebuilt them. Probablly have owned over a hundred. Worked as an automotive machinst building engines before it was even a trade. Have a propane and natural gas automotive ticket to convert and work on them..both requiring lic mech ticket. I NOW HAHA like to buy half decent cars..and then maintain them myself. I LIKE doing the work! But..C'mon..when I see receipts for work done..I don't feel like I should have to crawl under the thing/get it on a hoist..lol..take the thing apart to see if they actually did it.

This trans thing..fluid,filter never changed..just blind sided me. I knew it had been done..had receipts..and looked elsewhere for the problem. I knew it was the cable or the manual valve. It just NEVER occurred to me that the work had not been done like they said.

Oh well..