Anyone experience this... Bone stock 2007 Sahara Unlimited with every option, 10k miles, no other problems to date. Pulled up at the local Home Depot for a new propane tank, barbecue weekend… Stopped, pushed the shifter in to “park,” turned off the ignition, locked her up… put the tank in the back, hopped in the driver seat, turned the key, all the normal lights came on but starter would not engage, no click no nothing! Checked battery, relays, fuses, all good, yes I carry a multi-meter(Engineer), climbed back in. Turned on the ignition, mashed the brake and tried to move the shift lever, would not move, uh oh… looked up at the dash and the transmission position indicator is showing it’s in reverse, oh no… Tried to move the shift lever again, it moves this time, now I’m really pissed because the only thing that moved was the lever, *%&$(), You can’t start an auto with it in reverse, and about this time it starts to roll away, glad I was in in it. It appears the shift linkage has decided to disconnect itself someplace between the console and the transmission. Now, on this long 4 day weekend, sunny hot, 4 day weekend and plans for a trek through the Nantahala Forest, I am without my friend… Towed to local dealer, to sit, all by herself, until Tuesday, when the techs. come in. I was just wondering if anyone else has had the same issue with the linkage.

 

Silver the shift cable connects at the tranny on the drivers side. The actual trans shift lever on the tranny is flat 3/16'' steel with a ball stud facing down. After the cable goes thru it's retaining bracket it just snaps on to the ball stud. The cable end has a nylon ''pocket'' that the ball stud snaps into. I beleive the connection in the console is the same type- the shifter top cover unsnaps with brisk tugs, you can see in there and check if it's disconnected.... maybe your weekend is not lost. This is the same shift cable setup as a Saginaw (GM) steering column. Good Luck!

 

tinaman080,
Thanks, yeah, I checked both ends of the cable... The only problem is that the tranny is stuck in Reverse. The linkage disconnect was caused by the tansmission shift control rod at the transmission being bound up in the reverse position. I wished it was just as simple as the linkage

 

There is a thread, somewhere in here, that address a similar problem. I think it included pictures. It might not be your problem, but then again it may, search for it, maybe it will help. I'll also see if I can find it. Can't hurt to look.

 

I seem to remember that that ball socket tinman mentioned was not at either end of the linkage but more like just the other side of the firewall. I could be way off on my memory, but that's the way I recall it.

 

the same EXACT thing happened to me..was fixed in about a day..i was told it was just teh linkage..but now i know what to look for in the future so i dont have to go back to the stealership

 

YETI- I went out and laid under mine to make sure of the hookup, I didn't want to give a bad heads up...

 

I searched around and couldn't find the thread I had in mind. It sort of stayed in my mind, obviously not well enough, because the ball & socket was not in a place you would normally look for part of the linkage to come apart.

Don't you just hate it when you remember to remember something and just can't remember exactly what it was you were remembering. It's like having a name on the tip of your tongue, damn.
Sorry I couldn't be of any real help.

Let us know if it turns out to be something we wouldn't normally look for.

 

Dag nabbit, I found it.........never mind, it's for the transfer case linkage. That would put it in a different place from the trans, but of absolutely no use to you at all. So sorry.

But if anyone else needs it, this is the thread.
https://www.jk-forum.com/forums/show...ht=ball+socket

 

YETIBEAR- Actually the real reason I went out and checked the hookup is that I couldn't remember myself for sure about the linkage hookupLOL- It's terrible to hit the late 50's and go brain dead