Shift cable Fix DIY SAVE$$$$ - Toyota Tundra Forums : Tundra Solutions Forum

Kevlar39 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-17-2009, 08:13 PM

My shift cable broke taking my truck out of park in the driveway the other morning. Level pavement, and I always set the parking brake before putting it into park. I have an automatic and the column lever felt really loose and didn't change gears. Looked under the truck and sure enough the end broke right in front of the pin where it connects to the lever. It's plastic molded around a metal cable. I called my local steal-ership to order the Toyota only supplied part from Houston. 24 hrs later, $175.72 and a ride from a good friend was all i needed to get started.

Here is how to do this and avoid paying for 3 hrs of labor and a tow to the STEALER-SHIP. It is easy and surprisingly fast to replace. It took literally 20 min but lets just call it a 1 beer job.

I have attached a PDF of what I did so it will be easy.

Can an admin put this into the DIY pls.

kevlar39

tundrawes · #2 (**permalink**) 01-17-2009, 11:48 PM

Sweet write up! Great pics and very helpful. How many miles did you have on your truck before you had to replace the cable?

Kevlar39 · #3 (**permalink**) 01-17-2009, 11:59 PM

I had the cable replaced by the dealership under a warranty lower end replacement at 57000. I now have 72000. I should have mentioned that the cable that broke on mine was only 2 yrs old installed by the dealership. All i can figure is that they installed it too tight. First time the cable has ever broke on me on any truck.

Tundradrenalin · #4 (**permalink**) 01-18-2009, 01:05 PM

Great, thanks for the write-up! Info added to the DIY sticky.

Kevlar39 · #5 (**permalink**) 01-18-2009, 01:08 PM

thanks for postin it

Tundraman10 · #6 (**permalink**) 01-22-2009, 09:30 PM

Kevlar39,
may I ask why you set the parking brake on the truck when you are just sitting on a flat surface?

I use to apply the e brake all the time to my ford escape mainly for the heck. All it did was make the brake cable loosen up over a period of time.

duffyatkinson · #7 (**permalink**) 01-23-2009, 02:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tundraman10

Kevlar39,
may I ask why you set the parking brake on the truck when you are just sitting on a flat surface?

I use to apply the e brake all the time to my ford escape mainly for the heck. All it did was make the brake cable loosen up over a period of time.

It is a good practice. Even on what appears to be a flat surface, you can have the vehicle roll into a depression, hole, or whatever.

By engaging your parking brake BEFORE you put the transmission in park, you are minimizing wear on the locking pawl that keeps the transmission from rolling. The weight of the car is on the brake system NOT the tranny. The greater the degree of slope, the greater the potential impact on the pawl by not using the parking brake.

Tundradrenalin · #8 (**permalink**) 04-13-2009, 03:51 PM

My transmission cable has a massive burn mark on it where it has been resting on the exhaust manifold heat shield. I took it in to Toyota this morning to get looked at. I wasn't sure how bad the damage was... Well, it was pretty bad apparently, and it's getting replaced under the ext warranty. But I'm glad I found this prior to installing the new DTHeaders. I bet they'd throw the book at me.

The dealer doesn't have the parts in house, so it's going to be a "few weeks" until they're ready to do the R&R. I would normally do this myself, but the warranty covers the part&labor, so why not have them do it?