Caprice shifter stuck in park

Drivetrain discussion including Transmission, Differential, Driveshaft, and related items.
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frbtofdth
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:48 am

Caprice shifter stuck in park

Post by frbtofdth »

Hey all, new owner/longtime lurker here. Bought a 2015 Caprice at auction and I believe the shift lock solenoid is bad. The lever wont shift out of park. I hear a clicking in the dash when the lever is pulled forward, but it stays locked in park. The connector that goes to the solenoid is supplying 12v when the pedal is pushed. I confirmed that the tranny itself shifts by going under the car, disconnecting the cable, and shifting by hand. From what I see the only way to get the shifter out is to pull the whole dash, so I'm in the process of doing that,(maybe I can find the missing OBD port while its out), but I'd like to know if there is a way to remove/bypass the solenoid. I found the whole assembly on eBay but I'd rather just get rid of the lock out if possible.
Thanks.
smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2201
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: Caprice shifter stuck in park

Post by smwalker »

Diagram for the curcuit here:
http://www.newcaprice.com/forum/viewtop ... 321#p31927

Make sure you got a good ground also.

And Just a hunch police have been know to install an item by Tremco that interrupts that circuit. Here is a picture of one. See that large circle black thing? That is an air bladder that gets installed under the floor. You have to step on it and the brake to take it out of park. See if you see any mystery tubes running under your flooring.

Image
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
frbtofdth
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:48 am

Re: Caprice shifter stuck in park

Post by frbtofdth »

I already removed the tremco as I thought that was the culprit. The bladder was originally disconnected so I reconnected it. Both the bladder and electrical switch made the tremco box beep when the brake was applied, which meant that they worked as they should, but I wanted to eliminate the easy things first. I did not check the ground, just made sure that the connector got 12v when the brake was applied, which it did.
CrashTestDummy
Posts: 2300
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2015 2:31 pm
Location: Pearland, Texas

Re: Caprice shifter stuck in park

Post by CrashTestDummy »

It would be interesting to know if it can be disabled/removed. I was able to disable the one in our 96 SS, since it was starting to give me problems getting the car out of park. That one was easy, as it wasn''t energized until the car was started. I wouldn't mind doing that on our 9C1.
Gene Beaird,
Pearland, Texas
2012 Caprice 9C1
1992 B4C 1LE Camaro
2018 Tahoe PPV (her car)
1995 DGGM Impala SS
1985 Firebird - 310 LS1 C Prepared autocross car.
1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge
And some others
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frbtofdth
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:48 am

Re: Caprice shifter stuck in park

Post by frbtofdth »

So I fixed the shifter issue. The bolts holding the shifter assembly on can be accessed by removing the radio/silver box and the the shifter boot. 3 t27 bolts(in green) hold in place. It can be finagled out from below after removing the knee air bag. 3 smaller t25 bolts(in red) hold the solenoid in place. The car shifts fine now without the solenoid in place.
f1f.PNG
f1f.PNG (274.37 KiB) Viewed 5788 times

Now I have a different issue, I took the steering wheel off while trying to fix the shifter issue. Apparently the clock spring got spun around. I took the car for a test spin and found that the wheel barely turned left. I took it back off multiple times trying to get it aligned properly. I got it better but it's still messed up, turning the wheel left it takes more revolutions to full lock than turning it right. With the wheels straight the backup cam lines are way off to the left and not straight, hell, even with full lock in the opposite direction I cant get the lines to go straight. And after the third time pulling the steering wheel off it started saying Service Airbag. Is there some sort of reset procedure or should I get a new clock spring assembly? Also the lights on the steering wheel controls stopped working, the controls themselves work fine though.
Attachments
Wheel at full lock
Wheel at full lock
2.PNG (1.51 MiB) Viewed 5788 times
This is with steering wheel straight
This is with steering wheel straight
1.PNG (1.21 MiB) Viewed 5788 times
Pursuit
Administration Staff
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Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:39 pm
Location: Omaha, NE area

Re: Caprice shifter stuck in park

Post by Pursuit »

Might not be the clock spring. Probably a steering wheel angle sensor.

Regards,

Maurice
Maurice Sheil

mhsheil@gmail.com

2011 Caprice Phantom Black 9C3
2012 Impala 9C1
1995 9C1 Caprice
1996 GMC Sierra C1500
1996 Chevrolet K2500 Extended Cab, long box, 454, 91,000 rust free miles
1974 SJ Grand Prix 455 well optioned with factory moon roof
frbtofdth
Posts: 10
Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:48 am

Re: Caprice shifter stuck in park

Post by frbtofdth »

Ok, got that issue fixed, and in return created another. Now the steering wheel controls/horn button don't work lol. I think I pinched the harness and broke a wire. I'll make a new thread about this in the electronics section.
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