on 9/12/2007 9:39 PM Srgnt Billko said the following:
This might take a little pressure off Clark - but it is a little hard to
follow. KFC drive through for lunch $3.23. Pulled up to the delivery
window, put it in park. I had a five dollar bill and dug through the
console tray in my Cherokee for the change. Got my lunch, paid, and got my
$2 change. Went to put it in drive and it only went from park to reverse and
stopped. I tried a couple times - but wth, it's a '95 with lots of miles on
it and I assumed the linkage jammed. Nobody behind me so I backed it out of
the way, turned it off and had my lunch. I have roadside assistance /
towing but I was hungry - not in a hurry. Lunch finished - I figured I
should try it once more before I called the 800 number. No luck. But then
I looked closer at the console and there was a little (1/2" dia by 2" long)
black plastic tube that had been in the change tray and it was now perfectly
placed to block the shift lever from moving past reverse. My Jeep is a
little cluttered (dirty) and it blended right into the console. Can you
imagine if I had actually called the road-side assistance people ? Really
close to be really embarassing. So Clark - you are not alone.

I did something similar one time. It was a 1968 Mustang. The automatic
floor shifter was in a slot that had rubber pieces on both sides of the
slot that was supposed to act like some sort of covering for the
mechanism. There was no boot around the shifter. Fishing for some change
one time, a quarter dropped into the gap between the rubber pieces,
preventing shifting, and requiring that the shift housing be removed to
get to the quarter.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
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