for the past month, whenever i shift into park, i noticed there was some "resistance" in the gear-lever to get the car into park.
yesterday, it completely stopped going into park. it shifts effortlessly through the other gears, and even while driving the transmission shifts well. i have to leave the car in neutral with the hand brake on now. any ideas of what is wrong?

it may be unrelated, but i was having trouble with my remote where one of the button has stopped working. could it be an electrical problem that also has stopped the transmission to go into park?

 

from what you described i'd think the shift cable is binding, start with replacing it.

 

Replacing the cable begins with taking apart the console to disconnect that end of the cable. Once you disconnect it, check to see if the lever itself still binds, when the cable is disconnected. That may save you some dirty work on the underside of the tranny (the other end of the cable).

There's a spring-loaded mechanism that provides the clicking between 'gears'. That has a different height between P&R (vs all the other gears)so the brake/shift interlock can work. If that's the part that's sticking, then your repair would be at the base of the lever, not replacing the cable.

 

i did some searching for folks who have had similar problems and one thing i noticed is that it could be the detent plunger. or the shift cable. are those the proper names for those parts?

so if i disconnect the cable and it still doesnt shift, then that means what?

thanks for the input guys...

 

oh yeah, that always happens on those old 82 Accords.
Remember a couple months ago when you were driving thru the fields stump jumping?
you probably pinched the shift cable between the stump and the rear subframe.

 

lol, seriously? what year is this thing?

 

The detent plunger is what I was talking about.

If you disconnect the shift cable, and the LEVER still sticks, then it'ssomething right there at the lever. The detent plunger isa likely suspect, but you'll be able to see it better than us.

It REALLY would help out if you tell us what kind of car you're talking about.

 

the car is a 1999 Honda Accord lx [automatic, i4].
i thought i had mentioned the type of car, but i guess not.