The skinny on the car:

2000 Buick Park Ave
100K miles
3800 NA

My brother bought it from the auction. Repo car. The repo company yanked it up the flat bed in park when they took it.

The steering column is broke so the only way to shift the car out of park was to disconnect the shift linkage from the transmission.

Now the gear selector on top of the trans is very very stiff.

Do you guys think the park pin is bent causing the gear selector to shift very hard...I mean the only way to put it in gear or move it for that fact is to move it with a crowbar.

Thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Todd

Is it stiff threw all the gears, or just moving out of park? I would check for any binding cables and twisted linkages.

Just to make sure I'm on the right page here..

Because the column is broken, you shift it only from the transmission with the linkage disconnected. It takes crowbar like pressure to shift at the trans.

If that'* so..then it does seem like there'* an issue. Looking at a parking pawl, I could see one wearing..not really bending though. Something could have taken a hit..but not necessarily.

Yeah Bill you are on the same page......

So the next thing here would be to dig into the trans and inspect the parking pawl?

Dan its stiff through all gears at the trans...

If you are not positive that this problem was not there before, read on:
If you have the shift cable disconnected @ the trans and it is still requires excessive effort to move the selector through the ranges, here is what we do: remove the selctor lever from the trans, remove the range sensor (if equipped), remove the linkage seal. Now spray WD-40 in where the seal was and work the shaft through the gear pattern. I really doubt that anything got bent and have done this many times with success. The only thing that you will need is a new linkage seal.

So I would want to remove the selector from the transmission......... Is this hard to do?

What causes this bindage in the first place?

Thanks for your help guys!

Remove one 15 MM nut, that'* it. The binding is usually caused by corrosion between the case and the selector shaft. It should take you about 15 minutes to do this.

Great thanks!

I'll report back tomorrow..or late tonight. Next time I'll be working in this is today after work..

Tanks again for your help!

just remembered a piece of information...

My brother when he saw that the steering column was broke popped the hood to disconnect the linkage to manually shift the trans into neutral; after disconnecting the linkage the gear selector would not move so he forced it to move with a pole. The selector made a huge popping sound then moved very hard as I described earlier.

Do you think he did damage to the parking pawl?

So, am I suppose to dig the seal out from around the selector shaft with a pick? does the shaft stay in the trans?