For the last couple years, I've struggled to get the right shift cable adjustment on the Palm Beach. One way or another, I would either lose Park or Low. I couldn't have both. If I aligned transmission neutral to gear shifter neutral as per the service manual, I would lose park.
It seemed like either a lever-length mismatch (I had wondered if something was tweaked in the front end collision and throwing off the ratios) or a lost-motion problem.
I checked all the pivot points and saw nothing egregious, but the problem persisted. I finally decided to try to tighten up a few pivot points. New bushings on the relay, finely tuned washers placed here and there. Ten thousandths gained here, fifteen thousandths gained there, etc. Still, it was sloppy.
Finally I had a friend observe the upper end while I toyed with the lower end. I thrashed the cable in and out and asked him if any of his joints had play. He said they weren't even moving. Huh. So he worked his end of the cable in and out while I held the lower end stationary. He said he could move it 3/16" at least! The play is in the cable itself! Since the cable goes around about a 90 degree gentle bend, you could feel it slapping back and forth inside the sheath. You're either pulling it tight to the inside of the curve, or pushing it out against the outside of the curve. That seems like a crazy amount of play for a control cable to me, so a new one is on the way.
Anyway, if you have vague, sloppy shifting or missing end positions, check your cable for play inside itself from end-to-end.
It seemed like either a lever-length mismatch (I had wondered if something was tweaked in the front end collision and throwing off the ratios) or a lost-motion problem.
I checked all the pivot points and saw nothing egregious, but the problem persisted. I finally decided to try to tighten up a few pivot points. New bushings on the relay, finely tuned washers placed here and there. Ten thousandths gained here, fifteen thousandths gained there, etc. Still, it was sloppy.
Finally I had a friend observe the upper end while I toyed with the lower end. I thrashed the cable in and out and asked him if any of his joints had play. He said they weren't even moving. Huh. So he worked his end of the cable in and out while I held the lower end stationary. He said he could move it 3/16" at least! The play is in the cable itself! Since the cable goes around about a 90 degree gentle bend, you could feel it slapping back and forth inside the sheath. You're either pulling it tight to the inside of the curve, or pushing it out against the outside of the curve. That seems like a crazy amount of play for a control cable to me, so a new one is on the way.
Anyway, if you have vague, sloppy shifting or missing end positions, check your cable for play inside itself from end-to-end.
