Fritz371

I drove to a market yesterday with a stop on the way with no problems. I left the market got into my 928 and attempted to start. Nothing happened all the warning lights came on. Head lights were bright (not a battery problem). Tried moving the shift handle back and forth and noticed a ratcheting sound as though the shift cable was moving back and forth through its sheath, but apparently was not operating the park position override switch. I had AAA tow me back to my house and after we got the car off the tow truck I was going to roll the car back into my car port, and I once again attempted to start the car and it started, but I could not shift it into reverse only forward settings worked. This sounds to me like a shifting cable problem, but is it a broken cable or just a loose nut or a disengaged cable. Is the cable accessible from inside the car or must I get it up on a lift? My carport is not an ideal place to work on the car. I can not jack the car up ( a sloping gravel pad).

James Bailey

the cable is accessed from under the car at the transaxle....

Fritz371

I have the shop manuals and yes if I have to remove and replace the cable I would have to access the cable at the transmission and also at the shift lever which is accessible from inside the car at the center console.
I do not think that the cable is broken since I was able to shift into the forward drive transmission ranges, but not the reverse or park. My guess is that the sheath anchoring point at the console has detached itself from the support arm. That would account for the ratcheting noise (cable scraping against a curved cable sheath). Bowden cables must have their cable sheaths securely anchored at both ends other wise the cable travel is no longer fixed.
Thanks,
Fred

dr bob

Fred--

Here's a couple pix of the cable assembed to the shifter, showing theconnection of the sheath at the gear lever end. At the rear, that little bracket holds the sheath where the rubber bushings are on the tube. The bracket uis tie-wrapped to the cable for storage in the picture, though. That bracket is secured to the transmission housing with a coupple bolts with spacers, left side forward on the box.

You get to lower the exhaust and at least loosen the heat shields foer the exhaust where it passes by close. Make careful notes or a picture of the shifter assembly location on the four bolts before you remove it, and be sure to put it back in the same place when you reinstall it. Position is iportnat to operation of the sliding tamber grate, miss and it will ne noisy and bind a little. WSM gives you the rest of the instructions. I used John Pirtle's notes with the WSM guidance, and only stumbled around how the tamber and trim plate come out, with the two levers underneath.

Get an extra gaiter/boot (one for each end of the cable), and use plastic tiewraps to hold them in place. With those, I also added some teflon grease to the mix so the cable slides really easily inside the sheath.