1998 Durango Broke Shifter

[rod2envy]

Hello,

The weirdest thing happen to me yesterday, I noticed that the shifter on my 98 Durango is broke???? how in the hell this happen, I never heard or seen something like this,,,, it is an AT tranny and the shifter wich comes out of the steer colum broke right where it meets with the handle part wich has a O/D push button at the end of it.

I called Dodge and they told me that it has happen before and they have some in stock for like 65$ now my question is has anyone here ever had to replace one of those? how hard is it, should I just pay the dealer to do it or can I do it my self, Im pretty handy with maintenance of all my vehicles and tools... any help????

Thanks in advance guys!

Damian

[jason p]

if you take the cover off of the colum you should see how to replace the shifter

[PopKorn]

Never done a shifter but I did the blinker/cruise lever on a Chevy. One piece of advice I'll pass on maybe it applies. If there are any wires that go down the column, tie a string onto the end of the wire so that you can pull the new back in. You don't want to get stuck having to tear apart the whole column to get any wires back in. Hop this helps.

[bumyumyum]

I sometimes hang my hand on the shifter knob and I guess it cracked the knob. The replacement was $55 @ cost and I wasn't paying that for a little knob, but it does include the entire "stick" back to the steering situation. My solution was to take a piece of nylon rod and put it on a lathe. I have the coolest friggin knob you have ever seen on a Durango. Total cost about $0.30.