Shifter cable end keeps popping of bottom of shifter lever

[AGrayson84]

Hi everyone, so I did some searching around on this here on the forum and didn't really seem to find an answer to my specific problem. I came across one other person that had the same issue but there weren't really any helpful responses.

A few weeks ago I firmly shifted into 5th gear and the shifter lever went loose. I pulled over, popped the shifter boot, and found that the black cable end came off of the bottom of the shifter. I popped it back on, and off I went. Over the past few days, and several times today, the cable end popped back off. It's not to the point where if I'm not absolutely as gentle as possible, the end will pop off.

The cable end pops off by hand with very little effort, it's no longer clamping to the ball very well. Here is a picture (sorry, it's a camera phone) I took and was hoping you guys could tell me if something is missing/broken:

I tried finding a way to zip-tie the cable end to the shifter, but no dice there... the zip-tie manages to slip off with the movement of the assembly. What's the protocol for repairing this? I've read that changing the entire cable is a pain in the ***, so I'm hoping I can somehow just replace the end or the bushing within the end. Any good info on this??

Thanks,
Andrew

 

[BrApple]

I have no idea if the clip in the end can be changed or not. So it looks like you might have to replace the cables.

Just to note, this isn't a common problem at all. At least not that I am aware of.

Do you have an aftermarket shifter installed?

 

[AGrayson84]

Yeah it doesn't seem to be a common problem at all from searching I did. The current shifter is stock, but there's a possibility that one of the previous owners had an aftermarket shifter on the car at some point.

I noticed that the cable end usually pops off when going into 1st, 3rd, or 5th gear. When you move the top of the shifter forward and the bottom of the shifter travels rearward, the shifter wants to travel a little further than the cable will allow it. The same applies to going into 2nd or 4th gear... if you remove the cable end the shifter wants to continue traveling a hair more. But when moving the bottom of the shifter forward (pulling the shifter knob rearward into 2nd or 4th) cable seems to have some slack. When you put yank too hard going into 1st, 3rd, or 5th, the cable has no more slack and cable end slips/pops off of the bottom of the shifter as the shifter continues to travel a little more.

Maybe I need to make some adjustments on the cables. On a GM Motorosports shifter that I installed on my first GTO, I was able to limit the forward and rearward travel of the shifter handle assembly by adjusting a stop-bolt in or out from the front and rear end of the shifter assembly. Is there any way to limit the travel of the stock or an aftermarket shifter?

Either way... the cable pops off way too easily when using my fingers to separate it from the ball at the bottom of the shift lever. I'm going to try to find some way to "tighten" up or close up the hole in the shifter cable end that clips onto the pivot ball.

 

[dennyb]

My car had a previous owner break the locking mechanism like yours. If you look on the other side you will find that the release button and spring are most likely gone. It was a plastic cap with four thin fingers that fit into the openings on the part you still have. When the spring pulled it outward they wedged the cup around the ball fitting on the shift lever.

I took the largest heavy-duty zip ties I could find and made four replacement "fingers" for this space. I cut them to about 1 inch long and took a lighter to make the side I was leaving facing toward the shift lever had a head like a straight cut nail. I then put four of them in place and forced it back over the ball fitting. Took a couple of tries to get it over with the extra material in place first but it hasn't came off since I did it at the beginning of summer.

 

[AGrayson84]

Thanks for the input Denny!! Any chance you can get me some pictures of this??? I'm trying my best to envision what you're saying, but I can't quite picture it. Thanks!!

 

[dennyb]

In your picture there are 4 slots that are all the way through the fitting. One is just above your fingernail in your picture. I filled these with the plastic Zip ties I cut.

BTW that is the newer style cables and cable ends you have. It's the same as on my 2k SVT.

 

[AGrayson84]

Thanks again Denny. I think I get what you're saying. Maybe I can find this retainer with the spring, release button, and all that at some point. Any idea if it just snaps on? Or did yours and mine break off?

Anyway, this morning I took one zip tie and ran it through the two slots that run laterally on the cable end, and tied it around the bottom of the shifter lever. I slammed the shifter into several gears, several times and that seems to work. I did but the zip-tie on as tight as I could, so I might just cut it off and do the same thing with another but leave just a tad bit of slack so when the bottom of the shifter pivots to the cable end, the zip-tie won't hopefully break anytime too soon. I think that it will end up breaking if I have it as tight as I currently do, since the bottom of the shifter pivots a little when shifting forward to rearward. I'll take some pictures later when the sun is up.

 

[AGrayson84]

Here's what I did for now...





I just upgraded to a military spec zip-tie. Let's hope this holds until I can replace either the entire cable set or find a replacement locking assembly for the one that seems to be missing from my cable end.