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Posted By: smogmuffin 79 G10 shift lever not going into P or R. - May 21st 2017 1:34 am
Hi folks,

I finally got my carb issues worked out. Someone replaced the quadrajet with a Carter AFB and the fuel in the bowl had been boiling off causing hard starts. Edelbrock who sells the AFB now as their Performer series sells a .3 inch nitrile "gasket" to go between the manifold and the carb. Hopefully that will isolate it enough so the fuel doesn't boil off anymore...

Now on to the other dozen things that need done. Lately I've been unable to pull the shift lever towards me in order to get it into park or reverse. I have to go under the hood and with a flathead separate the detent plate so I can move the lever to R and P.

I've read that there is a procedure to put the lever into park, loosen the bolt and move the plate into the correct position for PARK and then tighten the bolt. Is that what is going to fix my problem or is something else the matter that I can't pull the lever towards me?

Thank you!

Posted By: CustomD Re: 79 G10 shift lever not going into P or R. - May 21st 2017 10:29 am
I don't have an answer for that but I'm interested to see a solution. Mine does it only when cold, it still will shift out of park but its hard as hell! Thanks for starting this thread and good luck.
Posted By: smogmuffin Re: 79 G10 shift lever not going into P or R. - May 25th 2017 7:20 pm
So here is what I found.

The shift lever was seized from moving toward the driver. When you pull it towards you, it's supposed to lower the detent by the shift linkage above the steering box to let you move out of park, into reverse, or into Low gears. I removed the lever and there was a half of a broken plastic cup in the housing. That could have been what was making it not move. The problem now is two fold. There is no spring action in the lever and moving it toward you does not push the detent down by the shift linkage. If I manually move the detent down, the lever moves up! I'm not sure how that connection is made and what is required to fix it. I watched a rebuild video of a C10 steering column on youtube, but this mechanism wasn't explained... Still researching.

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