350 turbo won't go into park

Hi - I have a chevy 350 turbo transmission in my '30' coupe. I had a transmission shop rebuild the trans before I put the car on the street. My problem is that the trans won't completely go into park. If you shift to park you can roll car and hear it "clicking", but it will never lock up. I drove by the transmission shop and asked them and they told me it was my linkage adjustment (Lokar shifter). I have played with the shifter some more and the problem is that it behaves exactly the same even when shifter linkage is not hooked up. I'm fixing a front oil pan leak now so the car is sitting up in the air. I thought I would drop the trans pan and try to fix this as well. Just hoping for some ideas from you guys on what I should look for. I realize the mechanical aspects on how Park works is pretty simple, but I'm certainly not a transmission mechanic. Thanks for your help.

 

The parking pawl could be broken, or the rear internal gear could be broken or have a broken tooth. Remove the pan to check the pawl. If that's the problem you can replace it without removing the ******. If it's the internal gear I think you'll have to do a tear-down.

If it isn't in the linkage take it back to the shop that rebuilt it.

 

Will it go into park with the shifter disconnected?
When you have the pan down, manually shift the linkage and you can watch the park rod move the locking arm. If the locking arm pin was not put in right the arm will bind and the cone on the rod will just slide back. Have the rear wheels off the ground so you can rotate the driveshaft to check the engagement teeth.

 

The trans shop would naturally think it's the shifter. I would too. But if it does it with the shifter disconnected, then it's the trans shops problem.

 

Was this problem present prior to the trans rebuild?

 

The problem is present with shifter disconnected and I don't know if it was a problem prior to rebuild (transmission was part of a project purchase). I suspect it is something to do with the roller since trans works great other than this Park problem. Trans shop has good reputation here locally for building race and high performance transmissions. I'm going to drop pan in a couple of hours after normal saturday morning chores around the house. Thanks for the responses - gives me something to go on.

 

Did this so called reputable ****** shop put it on the lift to be sure it was the shifter or just give you the I think its the shifter responce?If you have any warranty on the ******,you pull the pan and the warranty is void.Has the ****** gone into park since you have run it or just started the problem?

 

Sounds like the "Rooster Comb" is bent to me. Pull the pan and you will see what looks like a rooster comb. If it gets bent, usually from hard shifting, you can loose gears at either top or bottom of the shift pattern.

 

O.K. I pulled the pan. Everything was looking good in there until I started wiggling parts around. I don't know what it is called but there is a plate held on with two 5/16" bolts directly forward of the roller that has a rod directed to the rooster (?) plate. Those two bolts were barely in by one or two threads. I tightened them up and now I have Park. I'm ***uming it is one of those things that weren't originally tightened down and got looser and looser until I didn't have Park. Kind of a pain, but really relieved it's not something critical and only costs me some fluid and a new gasket.
Live and learn. Thanks for your input. This site truly has an incredible knowledge base.
The transmission guy should have had me pull car onto the rack and checked it out. He's lost my future business and any good recommendations. I'm always inclined to think the "professional" knows best. That's not always true.

 

Glad to hear you got it straightened out. I'd recommend using some blue thread lock on those 2 bolts jus to be safe.

 

I had a similar problem with mine that gradually got got worse. I found a valve body bolt backing out and interfering with a "S" shaped linkage. Some friends of mine and I rebuilt it, so no one to blame but myself.

 

Recently, my 350 Turbo shifting went awry. The 11/16 jam nut on the main shaft came loose. And the time before the same bolts you described came loose.

 

Having somewhat same problem if I get park no low if I get low no park just inherited this from someone else any ideas

 

I would go back to the transmission shop and see if they will reimburse you with fluid filter and gasket for a future filter change.

 

After seven years the warranty may have run out

 

New post ..Old thread..New problem .The guy did a search, like you're supposed to ..Check the post dates.