2004 Toyota Tundra stuck in Reverse (4WD, auto, ~160k miles)

So I think my 2004 Tundra is stuck in reverse. The column shifter was getting harder to move in and out of reverse/park for a while. Last week I went to Home Depot and I thought it was in park, but really it would only move into reverse and I shut the truck and couldn’t restart it when I returned. Discovering I couldn’t get it into P and that’s why it wouldn’t start I was able to get it into N (very hard, thought I was going to break the shift lever) to start and drive home, at home I couldn’t get it into Park but was able to get the key out and it didn’t roll (or rather I think the column was in P but the trans was still in R and the cable had just enough play to let that happen).

I thought it was going to be a broken shifter, gummed up cable or the brake/shift lock problem, so I took half the dash apart and removed the linkage from the column shifter and the shifter moves fine (but is a little lose from the excessive force I applied trying to shift gears lately, but the cable was solid and couldn’t be moved. I crawled under the thing and unbolted the cable from the shift mechanism on the trans and the cable was free moving as well…leaving me with the trans as the problem.

With nothing attached to the shift lever/bracket on the trans, shouldn’t I be able to move that freely and shift gears? It wouldn’t budge even with some hammer taps. It’s solid but not from rust or corrosion (and I did spray it down with penetrating oil), it just won’t wiggle a millimeter in either direction! There’s no other mechanism to keep it from shifting gears is there? Is my whole trans shot? Is there anything else I can check?

Side note, the thing shifted fine in drive, no slipping, no delayed shifts or anything, just hard shifting between P and R.


Many thanks,
Charles.

 

Welcome to the forum. Did you check any of these posts I found in about 15 seconds doing a search?

https://www.tundras.com/threads/2000-park-won’t-engage-have-to-start-in-neutral.93203/

https://www.tundras.com/threads/2005-auto-wont-shift-out-of-park.63374/

https://www.tundras.com/threads/need-help.71674/

https://www.tundras.com/threads/shift-column-broke.80049/

 

Thanks, and yes, of course I did search before I even signed up. "2005 Auto won't shift out of park!" was the closest to my problem but the while the shift linkage on his trans was frozen buy corrosion, mine is not (it's pretty clean and I did use a lot of PB Blaster on it just in case). It's not the shifter or cable. I've removed those and they move smoothly. It's the "L" shaped link/bracket on the trans that (with nothing connected) still will not budge but ordinarily should be moveable by hand with everything else removed.

 

Cool! No additional suggestions here, but maybe another person may! Good luck!