My shift cables went out on my car (stretched) i only have 1,3,5 does anyone know the fastest and easiest way to swithch these suckers out? Looking for helpful tips. Thanks

How exactly do you know your shifter cables went out, my brother owns a 96 sunfire, and whenever we shift to 3rd or 5th or 1st it dsnt feel right, sometime it goes in smmoth, but if you do shift it to quick, than you feel or hear a verey faint click noise or maybe a bit louder thana click. a sound almost like your cracking your knuckles kinda noise. is that the same thing your feeling when you shift to second, 4th or rervrese. its funny how you have 2nd 4th a reverse gone, and my borthers is 1st 3rd and 5th. anyway too tell what cable it is. youor help is always appreciated.

Ok, I have the same problem. I can't get into 2, 4, or R. If you actually go look at the transmission, the two cables connect to it. I popped those off and I could shift the tranny through all the gears and both cables moved fine. So I put the tranny in second and the shifter in second and saw that the cable couldnt reach the post. So, now I'm thinking it's internal transmission. Anyways, if you stretched the tranny cables, you would lose 1, 3, 5. Watch the transmission when someone shifts it for you, preferably on a good condition tranny. The cable is pulled when you are in an odd gear and it is streched when you are in an even gear. So basically, if you streched out the cable too far, you would hit 2,4, and r really easy and not be able to find 1, 3, 5. This is all from what i observed at the transmission, if anyone knows better, feel free to correct me cuz it'll help me with my problem too. O, btw, tranny cables are like $130 from the dealer and its the only place you can get em, as far as I know.

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I am going through the same problem. My cable was all frayed and stretch and I couldnt get 2nd, 4th and reverse. I used side cutters and clipped off all the metal around the cable and trimmed back the rubber coating and can get the bottom gears but not very well. anyways, disconnecting the cables from the tranny is not problem but when i take off the console I dunno how to remove the cables from the shifter itself. help me please. also, when you disconnect them from the shifter, would I just attach the new cable ends to the old ones and just pull them through?

I just did these on my sunfire. Its easy, but be prepared for the shocking price of new cables. 140 and up.
I removed the center consol, so you get the clear view of the shifter.
You need to remove the plastic vent peice that runs from the dash to the back, it kinda looks like an H.
I cut my carpet from the shifter foreward. You cannot see it with the console back on, and it made the replacement 10x easier.

Get a screw driver, or some sort of a wedge and pop the old linkage off the shifter. Its a pain in the ass, but it just pops off.
Do the same on the tranny side.
You have spring clips holding the cables into the brackets, compress the springs with pliars, and the metal things pop right out of the brackets. (dont know the "technical" term for them, but you will see what im talking about)
Once its all loose, pull the carpet back till you see where the cables go through the firewall. Its just a rubber grommet. Pull it out, and pull the cables out. Its simple.

Just put them back on the way you took them off, and happy shifting. Just be paitent with clippin the cables back onto the ends, its a PITA, but they do snap back on. A good set of chanel locks help out.

Put everything back togather. It should take about an hour. No big deal. Watch the cable routing also, dont have them sitting on your exhaust.

i don't under stand how stretched cables would cause you to loose the even gears. Cuz if it is just the cables that is wrong with my car, I can save my self a lot of money.

Because if they are stretched, when you pull the shifter back, the cables arent moving the linkage on the transmission as far as they should. Its making the cable longer, and your shifter cannot move back any more to compensate for the longer cable, and that will cause you to miss the gear.

easy as pie... it took me an hour and it's the 1st time i ever did it

ok where do you guys get cables fr 157 american, up here in toronto, thereselling for 450 cdn, plus tax, which is almst like 300 american.

find someone who works at the dealer and have them buy it for you... when i worked at the chevy dealer i bought new shifter cables for my car for 40 bucks brand new from the dealer

Bob Mahoney wrote:Because if they are stretched, when you pull the shifter back, the cables arent moving the linkage on the transmission as far as they should. Its making the cable longer, and your shifter cannot move back any more to compensate for the longer cable, and that will cause you to miss the gear.

I'm still not really getting how you could only have the even gears with a stretched cable. Since the shifter is a lever, pulling back on the knob, pushs the bottom where the cable connects farther away. so, lets pretend the cable stretched enough to change the position of the shifter handle to the next spot. That would make neutral be closer to where 3rd is supposed to be and 5th would be where neutral was. In other words a stretched cable would make it impossible or hard to get in the odd gears.

I hope all this makes sense, cuz it does in my head.

maybe your cable is stretched and became weak enough that when your pushing on the cable to get your odd gears, the cable bends because of the lack of strength and cannot push the linkage up sometimes into 1st, 2rd or 5th.

2rd.....hmmm thats a new number

it may be obvious to most that i meant 3rd but i guess not all

Ok youguys, i have the same problem, and i knoow for a fact whatt the guy said aboutt the dd gearsr is true, because i have odd gear problems, and not even gear problems.

Well, assuming the syncros are still fine, and it is indeed the cables. You need to pull out the center console, and plastic shrouding under the dash below the radio/HVAC controls. Remove the passenger seat so you can pull the carpet over and take the shifter cables off the trans and shifter. Then remove the shifter itself and you're left with just the exposed cables that run through the firewall. The cables pull inside the car and the new ones go through the firewall from the inside out. Put everything back together the way it was taken apart and you're set. it shouldn't take more than an hour or an hour and a half.


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HOLLY @!#$!!! that's weird... here in sudbury (4 hours from toronto) it cost me 200$ cnd... this was maybe a year ago though...

Could this cause me to lose 2nd, and then after a while [About, 30 minute's driving, with no 2nd, going 1/3/4/5, Cause me to lose 1st?


1st. is there. I just have to hold the shifter with pressure.

sounds like syncros, or bad trans fluid. You may just have low or bad fluid, and when the trans warms up, it dosent want to shift.

So many peaple dont realise how much trouble a stretched cable can cause. I bet about 70% of the peaple who think they have a "crapy" isuzu tranny with the common grind really have a sloppy shifter and or stretched cables. I did my cables a year or 2 ago and I had problems with gears grinding before that. After I changed the calbes it was like new again, no grinding! I dont ever remember having to remove a seat to change the cables!?? Any way why would you loose odd or evan gears? Simple, you have 2 shift cables, one controls the odd gears and one controls the evan gears?


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Cable stretch, the casing melts from heat, causing them to bind, the Dust boots pull back, and the cables carrode....... all causing the same problems........ hard to shift/missing gears.

new cables, heat wrap, and zip ties are gods gift to transmissions.....




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