Well, we (bro Stuart & I) managed to get a few more hours on the Polara at the weekend, trying to get to the bottom of our pushbutton woes.
Took Schuyler's (amongst others) advice and dropped the pan to get a better idea of what's going on inside. Must admit we didn't really know what we were looking for, as the manual doesn't appear to give any idea of what the cable operates inside the trans, but trusted the advice that it'd all become clear once 'inside'!
(See pics on link below)
Starting point was that no gears could be selected, except occasionally the Neutral pb would stay latched in. Kind of.
First of all, removed the adjuster locking screw and backed off the adjuster a few turns, as per FSM instructions. The manual then says to insert a screwdriver to release the cable. With the car on jack stands, and with just about enough room to get under the car, and with oil still dripping from the trans, I defy anyone to be able to get a screwdriver where it's suppose to go, and be able to see what you're doing!!
Even with the oil-pan dropped, we couldn't see for definite how the cable separates from the mechanism inside, so we opted to leave the cable attached and just try and re-adjust it.
What was clearer with the pan removed, was the (what I'll call a) plunger that moves in and out when the pushbuttons are operated (marked 'A' in the pics). With the adjuster backed off, pressing the buttons made the 'plunger' move back and forth just enough to see where R, N, D, 2, 1 should be.
With my glamorous assistant (ahem) topside keeping the R button pushed in, I made sure the plunger was all the way back in the R position, then pushed the cable back in, and started screwing the adjuster back in so it just came up to contact the face of the gearbox. Found it hard to get exactly the point where the 2 surfaces came into contact, so backed it off and tried again. Happier that the adjuster was approx in the right position to start counting holes, proceeded with the FSM method of setting the adjuster.
While I was still under the car, Stuart said the buttons were latching & holding their positions, at least a lot better than before. Just 1st gear wasn't being selected so we worked out which way to turn the adjuster and turned it by 1 hole-pitch to see if it made any difference. Didn't really have the desired effect, but were happy we'd got a lot closer to having some gears back. A bit more adjustment may get it all set up correctly, but we want to try and lube the cable itself next. Had to leave it there for the day, as we both have wives & kids that think there's more to weekends than working on the car!
One area for concern with the cable, we're not sure if it's been affected by being about 1/2" away from he exhaust (see pics). It's been lagged in some type of protective foil (previous owner maybe?), but I don't know if some of our problems could be due to the cable not moving freely in the outer.
We thought it best to order a new cable (& the parking one, while we're at it) so that we can see easier what we need to do to remove the old one(s). Still a bit concerned about damaging the selector unit when removing the old cables.
First of all tho, we'll try to lube what's there and see if a bit more adjustment gets us to where the car's useable again. That way we can fit the new cables when they arrive. Still got our vibrations to sort out, so cant afford to have it sitting, garage-bound for much longer.
If anyone can advise, looking at the pics, how to separate the cable from the trans, I'd be very grateful. There's a small circlip ('B') that looks like it retains the cable in some way, but the manual didn't mention it so we left well alone.
And if there's any more tips on getting all the gears, that's be great too!
Photos: http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/rob426uk/album?.dir=/55f8scd&.src=ph&.tok=phpimSGBsl3SQHql
Sorry for the long rant by the way,
Best Regards
Robert
63 Polara 500
England
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