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Shift lever assembly? Being lazy

Discussion in 'Generation 1 Prius Discussion' started by ronlewis, Jul 4, 2024 at 4:18 PM.

  1. ronlewis

    ronlewis Active Member

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    WTH, it's too hot outside to go see for myself, but if I already lured you into looking at this, maybe you'll give me a head start.

    Yesterday, something in my shift lever function broke. It became real easy to move and it still rolls when you put it in park. It drives fine, and all the transmission gears work as indicated. I repaired one before where a small C-clip came off that connects the shift lever to the transmission control cable, allowing it to fall off. But, this one is still shifting, except for Park.

    Does that transmission control cable not operate the Park function as well? Is there something else that the lever operates for Park? It doesn't really say much in the service manual.
     
  2. Trombone

    Trombone Member

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  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The only thing a gen 1 shift lever does mechanically is park and unpark. Everything else it does in the way of selecting 'gears' it does electrically, as a sort of game-controller input to the HV ECU.

    So if the mechanical cable comes off, all of the 'gear'-selecting still works, just not the parking/unparking.

    This is a problem that has had reports on PriusChat going pretty far back. At least one thread showed a sort of inventive repair for reattaching the cable (I don't remember the details).
     
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  4. ronlewis

    ronlewis Active Member

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    Thanks! That's what I thought I'd discover, but the service manual calls that the "transmission control cable," so I assumed the opposite - that it controlled the gears and something else was operating Park. Yeah, I did a quick fix on that once for someone I sold a car to, but never actually drove it broken so didn't know the drive symptoms. I forget exactly, but it's just some kind of a little clip, and I found something off the shelf at the parts house to work. Now, I'll just pull it off a parts car. Actually have one already dismantled that far getting the airbag.

    It's just so dang hot here.
     
  5. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    You think that's funny, look in the next generation, where instead of a cable, there's a box called the "transmission control ECU"—whose whole job on Earth is to spin the little motor on the side of the transmission that parks/unparks it.

    Spin one way, park. Spin the other way, unpark. Kind of a grandiose name for that ECU.
     
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  6. ronlewis

    ronlewis Active Member

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    Dang, give me a cable and clip any day. But maybe a stronger clip.
     
  7. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    In fairness, your gen 1 has a steering column that locks with the key. Later generations don't have that; their steering can be turned any time. Instead, their theft-prevention feature is the hard-to-access park motor on the transmission, kind of ensuring you don't go anywhere unless you convince the "Transmission Control ECU" that you deserve to be unparked for.
     
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