Last summer, I had the transmission replaced on this suburban. A couple of months later, it would intermittently not start will in park. By the time winter rolled around, it would never start while in park.
The P also does not light up on the dashboard when it is in park.
It will always start in Neutral.
See if you can verify the neutral safety switch and trans indicator are lining up properly. If the indicator says P, make sure the switch is all the way to the end of its travel.
Having said that, I don't own a 97, so it might be a totally different system in place, but this has been a common problem with my various chevs over the years.
I had been playing around underneath the dash, trying to see if anything was amiss there....
However, after reading this, I crawled under the suburban and played with the lever that the gear shift cable goes to. I could physically push it just a little bit more with the suburban in park. After jiggling it around a bit, I put the key in the ignition and the P indicator lit up for the first time in months and it started right up.
Do I just need to adjust the length of this cable?
I am going to followup to my own message.....
Put key in ignition "Park" indicator does not light up, vehicle only starts in Neutral.
Crawl under and push shift lever on transaxle (it moves maybe 1/16 of an inch or so). at the Neutral/Park Switch
Put Key in ignition, Park Indicator now lights up, and vehicle will start in park.
Shift to Drive, then back to park... Park does not light up.
Is the cable or Neutral switch not adjusted properly... what should I do?
Why don't you take it back to the tranny shop and have them adjust it properly for you. It should have be taken back when you first had problems, but, I suspect they will still do this for you out of good will and the fact they want you to come back to them to buy the next tranny. (You did spend a lot of money with them) It is probably a simple adjustment in the cable. When in park it doesn't quite engage the park switch, your light will not light up and also your engine will not be allowed to start. I don't know your vehicle, but, there must an adjustment near one end of the cable or the other, either at the end of the cable or on a nearby actuator. Another possibility is there is a return spring missing. The tranny shop would know right away.
It was one of those unfortunately events where the transmission decided to give up the ghost on an out of state trip.... or I would have returned it to the shop.
I would imagine the cable is not adjusted properly. On my 89 Firebird, there is a nut at the end of the cable that attaches to the transmission lever. If you loosen the nut and move the cable whichever way it needs to move, that should do it. Shouldn't take you more than a couple minutes.
-Bruce
Ok... I fixed it... didn't have to adjust the cable or anything...
I loosened the two bolts that hold on the neutral safety switch and adjusted it so that it recognized Park correctly.
On the suburban the gear selector passes through the switch into the transmission. You can rotate the switch around the selector somewhat to fine tune to switch to transmission alignment.
That's probababy what ya'll were try>>
I am going from memory, but there should be a screw or bolt at each end of the switch, loosen them just a hair, then slide the switch over and retighten.
Use your common sense on that because I haven't gone out and checked. It is not a hard thing in any case, just a minor adjustment at that switch, not electrical, and I don't think mechanical.
It was, but I was taking my nap when you checked back...good job.
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Group: alt.trucks.chevy Date: Fri, Jul 9, 2004, 8:10pm (CDT+5) From: snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com (Kawi=A0Man)
Ok... I fixed it... didn't have to adjust the cable or anything...
I loosened the two bolts that hold on the neutral safety switch and adjusted it so that it recognized Park correctly.
On the suburban the gear selector passes through the switch into the transmission. You can rotate the switch around the selector somewhat to fine tune to switch to transmission alignment.
That's probababy what ya'll were trying to tell me....
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Sounds like you took care of it.
however....... I would suggest jest one more little crawl under the truck.
Pop the linkage off the lever with a pair of needle-nose pliers...........
Then give the lever a little wiggle.
See if the lever has ANY play in it at all.
You're not try'n to shift the thing, and the lever will have a goodly bit of resistance in it before it crosses the detents to the next gear position. So....jest wiggle it to the point that you feel resistance. No wiggle ??? No problem !!
It wiggles jest a little ??? You didn't fix it.....and yer biggest problems will come later.
MarshMonster ~:~ =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
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