98 Pathfinder drives in neutral, parks in reverse

[Frustra]

UPDATE: Went out to mess with it more this morning and found two new discoveries. One: all gears act like neutral with the car off, so I can at least push it backwards. Two: with the car running and on a slight uphill, if I shift from park to reverse it still acts like park. But upon switching from reverse back to park with my foot off the brake, the car drives forward about a foot before Stopping itself and acting like it's in park again.

 

Hi all, just picked up a 98 pathy for $600 bucks and it's got a really interesting issue that I can't seem to find replicated anywhere on the internet. It physically shifts through all the gears just fine (the cabin shifter and shift mechanism under the car both move), but when put into reverse, it's still in park. Cant move the car at all in any direction, will rev and just sit there, doesnt roll backwards or forwards on a hill. When put into neutral, it goes into drive. Pressing the gas will get me normal forward momentum. Haven't driven it fast enough to see if it shifts forward gears in "neutral", so it also might be in the manually selected 1st or 2nd gears. I've scoured the internet and reddit and can't find anyone with similar problems. Trans fluid is fine, it drives fine through all gears, shifts fine in drive, and shift linkage seems fine. The only other  transmission related issue is that sometimes I have to cycle the shifter from park to drive to park again to get it to start, but I can't see that being related to this particular issue, seems more just a neutral safety. Any help would be appreciated!

[Slartibartfast]

 

You can get the service manual here--the AT section will be your friend. I would start by checking that there's no obvious damage to the shifter or the shifter cable. If the shifter's position doesn't match what's going on at the trans, that would explain the positions being offset, and why the shift interlock (park/neutral safety) is giving you trouble. Maybe someone tried to yank it out of park when the shift lock was on and tweaked something? Might have to pull the console out to inspect the shifter mechanism. Also check that the position switch on the side of the transmission isn't obviously damaged or messed with and checks out electrically, and that the wiring isn't obviously hacked anywhere. I doubt the service manual has a troubleshooting procedure for exactly this issue, but there should be some electrical checks and hopefully an adjustment procedure to get the shifter and trans synced up properly once you've dealt with whatever the damage is.

 

Good luck and let us know what you find. 

[Dbot]

I had a less severe, but similar issue with mine. 

• Park was mechanically park (wouldn't start electronically unless forward pressure was put on shifter)
• Reverse was mechanically reverse
• Neutral was mechanically neutral
• *Mechanical drive was between neutral and drive
• Drive was mechanically 2
• 2 was mechanically 2
• 1 was mechanically 1

Got in there and adjusted the nuts on the turn buckle. The factory service manual has a great step by step guide who to align and calibrate it in your driveway. If that doesn't fix it, you might have transmission issues.