Is there any way to make the shifter tighter?

[Fireball5657]

Hey all, my 94 Sierra has the automatic transmission, and the shifter is very loose, from the factory you’re supposed to pull the shifter towards you, then move it, but after you go from park to reverse on my truck, you can just push the shifter down or up without pulling it towards yourself. It’s not a big deal, but I’d like it to be a bit tighter. Thanks!

 

[thegawd]

hmmm iv been here I'm not sure how similar your 94 is with my 97 but here is my experience with the shifter, I had a very sloppy shifter many years ago.

one day I was holding it in my hand, it completley disconnected from the column and was sitting in my hand. ****. Lmao. one bolt holds it in place, get some loctite and seal the threads so this dosent happen again, it is locktited from the factory with some blue stuff. I got the red.

a few years later I shift from reverse to drive and the indicator light only moved maybe 1 notch and was in neutral, the full range only allowed it to move one notch from neutral to drive. it turns out that the trans cables outside sheath rotted in half, under the carpet on the drivers side right before it goes through the floor. so the entire cable would move back and forth and allow some really sloppy movement but not function properly. I suspected this was probably gradually getting worse over time until it broke completely.

iv never been inside a 94's column and you may have an entirely different problem, my shifter is firm like what should be expected.

Al

 

[Fireball5657]

hmmm iv been here I'm not sure how similar your 94 is with my 97 but here is my experience with the shifter, I had a very sloppy shifter many years ago.

one day I was holding it in my hand, it completley disconnected from the column and was sitting in my hand. ****. Lmao. one bolt holds it in place, get some loctite and seal the threads so this dosent happen again, it is locktited from the factory with some blue stuff. I got the red.

a few years later I shift from reverse to drive and the indicator light only moved maybe 1 notch and was in neutral, the full range only allowed it to move one notch from neutral to drive. it turns out that the trans cables outside sheath rotted in half, under the carpet on the drivers side right before it goes through the floor. so the entire cable would move back and forth and allow some really sloppy movement but not function properly. I suspected this was probably gradually getting worse over time until it broke completely.

iv never been inside a 94's column and you may have an entirely different problem, my shifter is firm like what should be expected.

Al

Well that’s good to hear! Sadly the 95-98 column is very different from the 88-94 column, or so I’ve been told. Things are laid out differently, pretty much no parts are interchangeable, which sucks.

 

[Erin]

Well that’s good to hear! Sadly the 95-98 column is very different from the 88-94 column, or so I’ve been told. Things are laid out differently, pretty much no parts are interchangeable, which sucks.

Maybe a bad spring at base of the shifter. Mine is loose & that’s what it is.

 

[arrg]

If your shifter spring is broken, member Idlook2 made a great video on how to fix it.
https://www.gmt400.com/threads/1990-gmc-k1500-restoration.51470/#post-1137413

 

[Fireball5657]

It’s not the spring that’s the issue, it springs back into place just fine, but it’s moving from R to N to D etc that is loose. The vertical movement not the horizontal movement.

 

[thegawd]

then it does kinda fit my description..... crawl under and watch the linkage as someone moves the shifter 1 click at a time. that's how my shifter felt before the cable sheath completely broke under the carpet.

 

[Erin]

It’s not the spring that’s the issue, it springs back into place just fine, but it’s moving from R to N to D etc that is loose. The vertical movement not the horizontal movement.

My bad. Mine is just wobbly, not loose during shifting.

 

[arrg]

then it does kinda fit my description..... crawl under and watch the linkage as someone moves the shifter 1 click at a time. that's how my shifter felt before the cable sheath completely broke under the carpet.

He doesn't have a cable. It's a shifter arm, a rod, and a bell crank all connected together with cotter pins. It gets real sloppy with a lot of miles on it.

 

[thegawd]

I remember hooking up a transmission cable on my old 94 burb when I replaced its transmission.

???