Shift lever assembly? Being lazy

There's a related thread here: Problem with shift lever controller sensor in 2003 Prius | Toyota Prius Forum.

 

The only thing a gen 1 shift lever does mechanically is park and unpark. Everything else it does in the way of selecting 'gears' it does electrically, as a sort of game-controller input to the HV ECU.

So if the mechanical cable comes off, all of the 'gear'-selecting still works, just not the parking/unparking.

This is a problem that has had reports on PriusChat going pretty far back. At least one thread showed a sort of inventive repair for reattaching the cable (I don't remember the details).

 

You think that's funny, look in the next generation, where instead of a cable, there's a box called the "transmission control ECU"—whose whole job on Earth is to spin the little motor on the side of the transmission that parks/unparks it.

Spin one way, park. Spin the other way, unpark. Kind of a grandiose name for that ECU.

 

In fairness, your gen 1 has a steering column that locks with the key. Later generations don't have that; their steering can be turned any time. Instead, their theft-prevention feature is the hard-to-access park motor on the transmission, kind of ensuring you don't go anywhere unless you convince the "Transmission Control ECU" that you deserve to be unparked for.

 

tl;dr: If the problem is that the grommet in the hoop end of the cable has disintegrated, you need some rubber or vinyl tubing that will fit over the peg and inside the hoop, AND an 8 mm E-clip from Ace Hardware, True Value, etc - not an inch-sized E-clip. I used some clear vinyl tubing that is 5/16" inside diameter. Put the tubing over the peg, cut it to length, shove the hoop over the tubing, and install the E-clip on the outboard end of the peg.

Go to this post 1st gen prius drives but does not park | Page 2 | PriusChat for my first post about it, and then look down two posts to see my follow-up with the E-clip, and some pictures of it installed.

I haven't personally experienced this, but the hoop bolts on to the end of the flexible cable, so it's at least possible for that to come unbolted. When you take off the "pod" in front (FRONT) of the steering wheel, you can check for both problems (grommet gone, hoop cane unbolted from cable).

Long version:

The way it's set up, stock, there's a metal peg that's attached to the shift lever mechanism. The middle of it is exactly 8.0 mm diameter, and the outboard end is 8.4 mm diameter. This peg moves with the shift handle as you shift gears.

There's a mechanical cable coming from the firewall, that is clamped to the bottom side of the steering column a little bit in front (FRONT) of where the turn signal switch is. The cable ends in a cast metal ring, which from the factory, had a custom-made rubber grommet in it.

The factory assembly procedure was to shove the ring+grommet assembly over the 8.4 mm end of the peg, until the grommet was seated on the 8.0 mm diameter part. The grommet was stiff enough that the wider part on the end of the peg would hold it in place; it didn't "walk" off the end of the peg after many shift lever operations.

The problem that rbdigital, myself, and a couple of other people had is that eventually, the rubber grommet dries out, cracks, and falls out of the metal hoop. Once that happens, the hoop slips off the end of the peg, and you get the condition you have. For me, at least, one way to tell that this happened was that the "action" of the shift lever got much easier - it took much less force to shift it through the gears.

You can't buy just the grommet loose piece from Toyota. You can (could?) only buy the cable, complete, which came with the grommet. I also looked at a few used cables on eBay, etc, and they were almost always missing the grommet.

User rbdigital came up with an initial fix, which is to find some rubber tubing (vacuum tubing, windshield washer hose, fuel line, like that) that will both fit over the peg and inside the hoop. I did this fix myself, and it worked for me for a couple of weeks, but eventually the hoop would walk off of the end of the peg.

Adding the E-clip fixed it for good, for me... or at least for 2 years, 10 months, and counting. The E-clip is wide enough to keep the hoop on the peg.

The shifter will feel just a tiny bit different than it did with the stock grommet, but it will work, and take the transmission in and out of Park as it should.

This post describes my initial fix (tubing only) 1st gen prius drives but does not park | Page 2 | PriusChat and this one describes adding the E-clip 1st gen prius drives but does not park | Page 2 | PriusChat .

I hope this helps!

 

A tiny smidgen of silicone grease on the peg might (a) make it easier to slip your new tubing 'grommet' into place, and (b) make it feel less squidgy when shifting.

I really do mean a tiny smidgen, like, less than you can see. The stuff is magic that way.

 

If I have to take it apart again, I'll give it a try. I have a tube of silicone grease that I think I bought to lube up the front brake caliper pins on another car. I also have a lifetime supply of "dielectric grease", which might be silicone - it's made for putting on the bases of automotive lamps, to exclude water.

My initial idea was that it's related to the hardness/compliance/durometer of the vinyl tubing I used, compared to whatever rubber Toyota originally used.

In the words of the ancient philosophers, "A little dab'll do ya".