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i definitely wouldnt jump to doomsday thoughts since my c1500 shift cable was laying under the carpet and just daily use by my dad made the shifter get wonky and eventually he broke the BTSI trying to throw it in gear. Loosey goosy. The sheath gets worn, then the strands get rubbed away, and then as soon as it can "kink" where the wear is when using it(usually near a loop) or the cable braids shave away, then the cable starts pulling itself apart lengthwise.

its a fairly common need to replace in these trucks, I suspect the sharp loops the cable has to take + the normal use of a truck are why but thats just theory. ESPECIALLY since it occured during a manual downshift. " In between gears" become possible because of the linkage not being in sync with the column detents.

If you hold the shifter lever AWAY from you when using it, you can actually find the exact detents since it will "climb" almost like a ladder (youd understand if you ever do it lol, hard to describe)
I crawled under it, the cable looks good. Everything seems normal. I had my buddy tow me home with his sketchy 4 runner. Because no triple A and pride. I did the push away climb the ladder thing you mentioned with column shift. It felt normal, then in third popped way farther back to the dash and the indicator light went dark. Popped it past D and into reverse and neutral finally lit up. I was thinking it was weird. So I did it again. And same results. Weird 3rd pop back after smooth 1 & 2 except this time reverse lights were on, and it said I was in neutral. It's all funky. Pump failure is ruled out at thjs point the fluid drops. I have no symptoms and can't get limp mode. I think I'm out of detent Alignment and caught in gears. Is that a thing? Imma scrounge the forum now. But. You were right.
 
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Alright. Annoyance time. After diagnosing to my best I came to the conclusion it is the range switch (neutral safety.) Factory switched come silicone on oretty good so I got a new one because I knew I was gonna roach the factory one even if it was good. I did.....anyway I found the connectors to look like this, pretty corroded and gunked.. I added the factory switch after I got ahold of it, but it's corroded good too, i did the breaking tsking it out..
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does anyone believe this would cause my truck to not give me any gears and stick me only in neutral.
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All weatherpack stuff should be dry. Probably not related to the slipping gears.
They didn't slip. My column doesnt show the shift indicator right and it won't get out of neutral. I did every test possible to eliminate a trans or pump or drive failure. All 20 odd possibilities match no system and tests show isn't it. This is the last variable and it's showing corrosion and clearly giving mis signals to the computer. A symptom of it also is won't go into gear and even gear slippage. Can you tell me why you think it's probably not this? What should I do while it's all apart
 

Komet

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I'm suspicious of the shift linkage, sounds like it's really loose which isn't normal. I mean, those connectors are gross and you should clean them up, but that loosey shift situation is still gonna be there. All the NSS does is prevent power to the starter in not P or N, unless GMT400s run more logic through them than older stuff.
 
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I'm suspicious of the shift linkage, sounds like it's really loose which isn't normal. I mean, those connectors are gross and you should clean them up, but that loosey shift situation is still gonna be there. All the NSS does is prevent power to the starter in not P or N, unless GMT400s run more logic through them than older stuff.
1995-up have a "range switch" which indicates specifically what position the shifter is in for each possible position. That's how the indicator on your gauge cluster works, as well as the PCM knowing where the shifter is. It can cause all sorts of issues, even damage the tranny. People just call them NSS because it also serves that function. 94 down it is a different switch. The linkage had a little slop. Adjustments will be made when I place this new one in. And if slop persisted I'm going to replace the whole lever. But for now I just wanted to know if anyone else had PCM/TCM issues like mine from this switch. My symptoms were odd. I tested and diagnosed. And I hope this helps someone some day if it's a solution, instead of dropping big wads on tranny work that didn't work
 
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