Sharing my experience fixing my 1997 Deville with a hard to move column shift lever, esp. when cold!

First off. HUGE thanks to rodnok01 (and the community overll) who posted his inital experience repairing two of his (a 97 and a 9. I will add my lessons learned to compliment his experience, steps and lessons learned. Im a pretty good DIY mechanic, but benefit from videos, pictures (Im a visual learner) clear description, and always seem to encounter some kind of issue ;^)

See robnok'* inital his post here. from another forum. Great start that gave me the confidence to try.

I followed his instruction and went well. A few things that I struggled with cause Im just a serious DIY car guy, that I can try and clarify for others.

When you take off the dash knee pad section under steering column, there are 4 spring clips (see below) that may or may not pop out easily. Had I seen these in advance, I probably would have cursed less, and not broken one of the plastic holes on the kick panel. If you can get your hand up there and squeeze those two spring tabs together it will help. Three of mine came out fairly easy before I knew what they looked like. Last one, not su much.





TIP: Put thr electric seat pretty far back before loosening column bolts, but not so far back that the column cant rest o the seat. You want the column supported by the seat. But, you also will need all the space you can get when you need to stand on head to look under there.

Undo the 4 column bolts. Pretty easy, but be ready for a little weight, and try not to twist colum in any way, and try not to pull it outward toward drivers seat. Just lay it on seat.

TIP: Put some blocks behind wheels. When you first drop column and see mechanism, you will want to try and shift to see if soemthing isnt working or there is something obvios wrong. Sub-tip: When you try to shift lever when column unatttached, the column is going to want to roll to left and right, and we dont want it roatating! Be prepared to try and hold it level while trying to thift lever. Or ge t a helper!

TIP: Next newbie issue I had - wasnt sure how to remove the shift cable from the mechansism. Most pop off, but ddint want to take the chance that there was hidden clip somewherre holding it on. Esp. on a 1997 where replacement parts not guaranteed. It does just pops off. Little screw driver between plastic end cap and mechansism metal, and a twist and it pops off. And, take shift cable off now, before removing pivot bolt.




Tip/Note: YES!, Take the pivot bolt out!!!!! IF it looks clean, dont stop there. Mine looked really clean and I saw nothing that looked like it would cause a hard shifter. Its likely the hidden galling of the pivot bolt causing the issue. I was nervous about messing up and creating more issues, so I almost talked myself out of removing the pivot bolt. Fortunately, rodnok1 convinced me other wise. Looked super clean at first. but, pivot bolt was galled andx needed cleaning.






Next was taking off the 8mm hex bolt nut on top (#1 in picture). I didnt pay enough attention in rodnok'* post and I mistakenly assumed the top hex bolt portion (#1) and the thrreaded screw (#2) were one single piece. They are not. So when I had the hex bolt top (#1) pretty loose I noticed that the threaded screw portion was not moving at all when I loosened the hex top 1. And I had been loosening for a while. I (mistakenly) assumed they were a single unit and thought it had broken into two pieces and thats why threads werent turning anymore as I loosened top hex part. Not the case. The pivot itself is a long piece and it takes a lot of looseneing to before releaseing from bolt. I had spent too much time with broken bolts on my sons Toyota MAtrix from the rust belt, where many bolts just break like that ;^)

Tip: Next lesson. Whent he top hex nut finally comes off the bolt threads of #2, nothing much happens, and mechanism still wont lift off. Thats because you need to follow rodnok'* intructions and take shift cable off first. The shift cablle is stiff enough to prevent the mechanism from coming up and off.

Pictures of hex bolt nut top (#1) and threaded bolt (#2) and a video where I was able to move the two independently and thought I had broken the threaded bolt from the hex nut




Broken bolt? No: https://iplayerhd.com/player/video/3...1537b89a/share

Tip: Like rodnok1, the tolerance is tight on pivot bolt, and there is bound to be some galling/corrsion. Will need a bolt that fits cleanly to know it out. I used abrake caliper bolt that fit nicely in there and tapped pivot out with a hammer. If yours is really stuck, may need a press or PB blaster soaking. My pivot bolt was galled. Huge amount? No. But enough to cause the issue. After cleaning the pivot and mechanism the shifter works great.





Tip: I used a wire wheel on bencn grinder (lightly) on steel pivot bolt. Then I used some 600 then 1000 grit metal abrasive paper I use on guns to smoothe it up. Im sure the wire wheel alone would have been fine. For the inside circle on mechanism where pivot bolt seats, I used a 1/2" wire brush on my drill, and then the same abrasive paper, to clean there. Again, not aggressivehere, (tip) esp on the aluminum mechanism cleaning. Cleaned parts off with brake cleaner Sorry, no pix of final, but they werr shiny and smooth.

Lubriaction: Then I chose to use some gun part anti-sieze / lubricant on the pivot bolt and its mating surfae. No brand name - something I bouht from a gunsmith. Tight tolerances so really cant put muh in there. Also applied a little to the receiving threaded bolt. For the portion of mechanism that the plastic ball that travels in it when shifting, I went with Sil-Glyde. The places it runs are obvious and show some wear points/paths. But I liberally coated it. Also put some under that mechaism, and arms that move, etc.

Next tip: Remnder. Put the cable on before reassembling the mechanism and hex bolt back in place. Oherwise, you might find that you have attached the mechamism back on and trapped the cable undedrneath it. Yep, did that.

Reassembled everything

Last tip/lesson. When I raised the column back up I first aligned the two column holes and mounting bolts that were closest to the driver, they were aligned. Some fussing arounf here. But for whatever reason, once the fronts were done, the back two column bolts didnt align with thier holes. "Gently" pull and shift and wiggled, eventually they also aligned. Took a few tries, and Im not actually sure what I did that finally made them align. Assume there was some play front to back in steering linkage, but was super paranoid about misaligning/pulling any of that.

Now, because I broke the plastic screw hole on padded kick pad under column I need to fix that )9pic way above).

BUT, the shifter is so smooth now. Hopefully I wont have to do it again in a few years! This Caddy spent its 40K miles life in a garage. Kind of a major deal at only 40K miles. HAd a simialr issue with my 2005 Toyota Sienna, but that was at 170K miles. Additonally, I noted that on my metal cover plate under column there was some superficial rust. Must just be humidity of North Carolina? But would expect that the same pivot bolt might need attention again at some point.




Hope this helps the next guy!!! Thanks rodnok and the rest of the supportive community here!

Wow, great write up!

Thanks!

Thats where everyone'* patience with some new guy askign too many question pays off. I over think things, and still run into small issues that can become big issues ;^) The good write up is a result of all the good input I get.

Spoke too soon. Drive around neighborhood lost shifter. Going to reverse to back up, went for drive, but it shot to 3rd, then would not change from there. Fortunately in a drive gear so I could get it home. . But strangley, drove it back into driveway in 3rd, turned engine off engine in 3rd ( (only option), and cars rolls back - in neutral? Does turning key off change soemthing?

Dropped column again, getting fast it, shifter cable is off. Noticed this time (didnt noticeon first round) that the cable can be pushed in and has stops/points where it clicks into various gears. Verified with key back on. Pushed all the way in Park, then each pull out thru each stop, dash light for gear would cycle thru to Low 1 farthest out.

Maybe I didnt have it right spot at firt install? So pushed it all the way in until shows Park on dash. Put column back up, started car, ran thru gears. Around reverse I think I lost it again, cable comes back off.

Thought?

https://www.bushingfix.com/gi1kit/ ?

How hard is it to repalce entire cable? Doesnt look too difficult, excdept the firewall portion maybe.

Picture of cable end inside. Is it really just plastic? No metal clip of any kind supposed to be in there?

When the engine is not running, the hydraulic pump in the transmission is not turning. When the hydraulic pump in the transmission is not turning, no pressure is generated to apply clutches. No clutches applied means the gears are on vacation and nothing in the transmission stops the car from rolling nor makes it go.

Selecting Park engages the park pawl with a toothed wheel. That'* what holds the car in place in Park:



I feel like I'm missing something, like there'* a $0.01 part that'* the key to all of this that is missing or something.

It isn't usually extremely difficult, but not super easy like replacing a hub cap.

Sometimes there'* a metal clip that slides over the whole thing. Depends on how it was designed.

Man, I learn so much from this group!