The other day I pulled up to the garage where I am working, applied the breaks as I slipped her into park, and opened the door all at about the same time. As I started to step out I noticed the JK roll backwards a bit and stop.....it stopped because it was a level surface. I walked to the front braced my knee against the bumper and pushed.......sure nuff, it rolled. First thing I thought was I sheared the Park "Pin" (so to speak). Got back inside, went to start it, all the dash lights light up, then hit the starter..........CLICK. Tried again.......CLICK, and again.....CLICK...Nothing I checked fuses, got underneith for a looksee....couldn't find anything wrong. I had a feeling it wasn't sensing the Park switch. Pulled off the tiny door in front of the shifter, (that I had read about in the manual) put the screwdriver in, released and moved the shifter around.....it felt really loose. Tried to start again.....still nothin'. I also noticed that the reverse lights would stay on in every position. Anyway, I had to have it towed to the dealer.

I explained to them what had gone on. They said they would call. Next day they called around 2pm and said it was ready to go. They said they were tracing electrical, talking with the techs at Chrysler, running all the diagnostics....couldn't find anything wrong. They finally decided to go, as he said, "old school". Took off the center console and there it was.......the shifter cable had come "DISCONNECTED". No, not broke, but "disconnected". I said, so tell me, if this was to become "disconnected" again, is this something I can fix in the field? He said yes, 4 or so bolts, pull the shifter as well, lift off the console, and there it is, sounded like you should be looking at the the shifter cable.

All I can say is I'm glad I wasn't 100 miles offroad when the damn thing became "disconnected" Had I been I'm sure I would have gone "old school" as well, as like I said earlier, I was pretty sure it had something to do with linkage, as well as having the reverse lights on indicating it wasn't in park.

Anyway.....just wanted to give you other guys with autos the heads up if it ever happens to you. Don't get me wrong, I love my auto tranny after driving a few CJs over the years with manuals. But that sure is the big problem with the autos nowadays......if even the littlest thing goes wrong you could be down for the count.

Hey.....Be safe and have fun out there...!!!

 

Thanks for the heads-up. Hopefully it was just a fluke, and not common like the transfer case cable issue.

 

I have read some other posts about similar problems with the tranny shifter and the transfer case shifter. It may be quicker to reconnect the cable from under the jeep instead of removing the center console.

 

x2 Thank You....

 

Maybe......I got under it and looked around a bit but couldn't see anything. Didn't look very long tho.

 

Don't know what else I could have done........just put it in park pretty much like normal. I was at work and in a hurry a little, so it may and been rolling very, very VERY slightly when I put it in park, and like I said, I was hitting the breaks at the same time. I mean it didn't lunge me forward or anything even close to that at all. But if these things are rolling even the slightest little bit, do you think that could have caused it? I haven't looked at it......how is the thing connected anyway? I doubt very much it's any kind of clevis pin.....lol.

 

So when you are talking about the cable coming off, are you talking about a shift cable like an old school nonelectronic tranny would have, or a wiring harness. I've never torn the console on my Jeep apart, but other electronic trannys I've worked on either had a series of microswitches on the shifter or it was a solid state push button shifter.

 

It's a conventional push-pull cable.

 

I've never looked at mine either but, would a zip tie help to hold the cable
in place ?

 

Had this happen to me this evening. Pulled over on the side of the road because I had something in my eye. Looking in the mirror, my daughter yells "Dad it's not in park!" I go to put it in park and nothing. Same description as original post. My daughter tells me "Dad someone is stopping." I look up and it is a dude in an old jeep. In between puffs on his cigar he asks me what is wrong and I tell him I can get it fixed he says cool just checking on a fellow jeeper. Gotta love the jeep. Anyway, reach up inside the console, grab the cable shift it into drive and away we go. Get home, look up in the tight space with a flashlight and push the cable back onto the shifter, tada, back in business. Glad I didn't freak out because I sure was going to tow it to the dealership where it would have sat all weekend and they would have charged me an arm and a leg. It's a jeep thing....