Can't Shift Gear out of Park

[Dwyn]

I Can't shift gears out of park. It's always been screwy. The first time I looked it up I just had to make sure my parking break or emergency break was pushed all the way down, but I triple checked that and now its something else. Are there any tricks? Is there something possibly wrong?

All the doors are closed. The engine turns over just fine. I just can't get the stick to shift out of park to anything. It won't budge. What could it be?

It's a 2007 Chevy Collins, Diesel engine with an Allison Automatic Transmission.

[Jolly Roger bus 223]

some vehicles require the brake pedal to be pushed down.
not the emergency brake.
are you parked on an incline front to back?
some transmission are hard to get out of park if on a hill.
is your shift cable loose or worn out?

[Dwyn]

Oh that is a good point! I was parked at an incline. I have a rather steep driveway. I finally got it to shift without doing anything at all and re-park it at a level angle but now it's stuck again so that's disappointing.

[cadillackid]

heres how to avoid park-lock in the future..



1. stop the vehicle. brake pedal pushed.

2. engage the parking brake.
3. let off the brake pedal
4. shift to park.


if your vehicle rolls when letting off the brake pedal then fix your park brake.



this lets your parking pawl be a backup to your park brake but the park brake takes the load.

[magnakansas]

here is the big potential problem.

When the parking brake system does not get used, it gets stuck - some times stuck so that the parking brake will not work, sometimes stuck so that you can not get the parking brake to turn off.

but, yes cadillac is 100% right about this.

william

[LargeMargeInBaja]

Our rig -- 1996 with an Allison 3060.
.
After swapping starting batteries, we encountered a no-shift from neutral.
Tracing, we discovered a dedicated ground from the battery negative post to the control box on the rear bulkhead in the cab.
.
Similar to most wires/cables from the battery, this wire has a fuse (in this case, a circuit-breaker) near the potential for sparks.
The circuit-breaker *looked* fine... but a replacement got us going.
.
Or maybe it was a hot lead, start batteries to ECM.
That was a decade ago, and unless I write it in my op manual...

[peakbus]

The other issue with a van style (like any car) is the steering wheel lock. Try pulling the wheel away from where it is locked before turning the key.