Throttle Cable and Shifting

[Grego 92]

Can a bad or not adjusted correctly throttle cable cause automatic transmission shifting issues? such as, shifting into first gear too soon and with a jerk.

I've noticed that if I play around with the throttle cable it will affect the accelerator pedal resistance and also when the transmission shifts into first gear. I'm not talking about adjusting the cable nuts that hold it to the bracket at the throttle body, just moving and pulling the cable around.

I did notice that the rubber sleeve surrounding the cable has broken off from the end that is located behind the neutral safety switch, so I can expose quite a bit of cable by pulling up on the sleeve.

Perhaps I should order a new one and replace it? Anyone have experience in doing this, the manual says to just pull the old one out and put the new one in and make sure you push it in far enough.....sounds too simple.

[Grego 92]

Crap....after looking at the manual again I think I have to drop the transmission pan to get to it...knew it couldn't be that easy.

[Doctor J]

broken cable jacket can affect the shift quality (hard or soft0 but should not affect the shift timing on ECT transmission. Depending where the cable jacket broke you may try to make a "splint" from the stiff metal wire or metal strip, bring both ends together and secure them to the "splint" with 2 hose clamps (worm type) this will keep both pieces of the jacket in proper alignment.

[Grego 92]

Thanks for the tip, I did what you said with some zip ties (all I had) it seems to shift better now!, we'll see if it lasts though. I had to adjust the neutral safety switch anyhow because my "R" light was coming on all the time so no time wasted.