97 Trans Cable replacement
 

I have a 97 Camry, 2.2, AT. I need to replace the transmission shift cable since it broke right where it attaches to the trans linkage. Does anyone have a DIY on this repair? Any advice would be appreciated. thanks

97 xle v6
 

Good luck, same thing happened to my 97 Camry XLE, some things I found out so far:

Dealer wants around $400+ to fix.
Shop wants $300+
Cable from the dealer is $240 alone
I have not found one on area junkyards yet (good thing though)
Cheapest aftermarket I found: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/TRANS...Q5fAccessories

I started taking the cable off, it's a pain. The only hard part is where the cable assembly meets the wall separating engine from the inside cabin. Two bolts connect the inside cable plate to the firewall, but there's very little room to work in. I ended having to buy a 10 mm "guear wrench" ($14) since a socket wrench does not fit and a regular wrench only does about 1/4 of a turn at once (having to lay on the floor door frame, working with my left hand). After getting that inside plate off, I saw another plate (engine side) which means I'll have to raise the car and work from the engine side underneath the car.
I took a break, and reconsidered my plan. Why spend the sweat, frustration and $$$ for a cable that is perfectly fine, the only part that needs replacement is the plastic that connects the cable to the transmission? I saw a couple of postings elsewhere where a couple of people attempted a fix to this instead. So I'm putting the original cable back together and will instead attempt a fix to this part myself (first attempt was pretty crude, I used a wire hanger which half-worked as it would shift but would frequently prevent me from shifting into park).
In my trip to Farm & Fleet (store) to get a slow leak fixed I looked around and came with a plan: a small hose clamp and an electrical wire end loop. I can try to post a picture once I make the fix (hopefully today) if interested.

Would be interested to know what you found out. I hit a spare tire sitting in the middle of the interstate and it rammed into my radiator, condenser, and also broke this plastic piece. Been looking for fixes since I assumed, correctly from what it sounds, that this replacement would be a major pain.

Fix was much easier than I thought. I bought a couple of hose clamps (~$1), found a cable connector that came with a motorcycle battery maintainer and also some kind of plastic wheel that I used as a spacer, not sure where I got that from. The cable end connector is one of those that has an open end that you usually crimp around the bare end of a cable, other end is a loop that just happened to fit perfectly. Took some pictures of the parts and the finished product, but don't have the time right now to figure how to post them (they're too big, about 2Meg each). I could e-mail them to you if interested...

See if posting the pics works... forgot to mention that the fix itself would've taken me about 15 minutes total, at a price of about $1.... not bad!!!

Shift cable repair
 

I simply purchased a battery cable clamp (side post style). The hole is is a perfect fit for this shifter pin. I also put a few larger washers in for spacing. Try go get one of the nicer zinc clamps (holds up better than lead). you simply clamp it onto the shift cable (above the ball at the end). Total cost $2.27 at O'Reilly's. Took less than 15 minutes (stronger than the original cable).

maybe this video could help.

YouTube - ‪MR2 Shifter Cable Broken (DIY)‬‏

I saved a few $$$ with your advice. I have a camry 98 and I was able to save a tow job plus able to fix it within an hour. I grinded the tip of the cable to get rid of the remaining plastic and I used a battery connector (side battery connector) to reconnect the cable. A perfect fit for less than $10.

Thanks

Guy

Thanks a zillion!
 

My wife’s 1998 4 cylinder Camry suddenly suffered an unresponsive shifter in our driveway (luckily for me it wasn’t located elsewhere that would necessitate a tow). I did not know the exact cause at the time until I Googled the symptoms and came up with the diagnosis of a broken transmission shift cable. Having minimal experience fixing cars it took about 10 minutes of looking under the hood to locate the cable and figure out where it connects to the engine. I found the cable severed just above the lever attached to the engine (for those of you like me - looking from the front of the car it is below and to the left of the battery). It seems this is a common area for it to break. I discovered I could manipulate the lever in order to put the car in neutral so I could push it to a more manageable spot in my driveway. [I suppose if you were stuck in traffic with a buddy (or at your mistress’s house) you could have him (or her) move the lever to the appropriate position while you have your foot on the brake so you could put it in drive and get it home to avoid tow charges (or an awkward and potentially more costly situation).]

I investigated the fix to determine if I could handle it myself or suffer another $500 bill at the mechanic (since the car has 135k miles it has been visiting the mechanic frequently). From this forum and others I was confident I could fix it myself. But I didn’t like the fact that an OEM replacement cable costs about $250 locally and $180 (shipped) if bought online. NAPA sold an aftermarket cable for $90 but I learned the following day they were completely sold out nationwide. So I ordered an $80 aftermarket cable on eBay from a seller in Montreal that had a 100% rating. But it would not arrive until four days later so my wife was not too pleased about being without a car until then.

While searching the forums to determine if a V6 cable available from NAPA would be compatible (I never found out for sure but it likely isn’t as evidenced from my further tinkering) I learned the ingenious solution from this thread that got the car running OK within a day and completely fixed within two days (since I have a day job I could only work on it after I came home from work). I learned a little bit more from this situation that might be helpful to others. Unfortunately I didn’t find this thread until the day after I spent a couple hours figuring out how to remove the broken cable and purchasing the replacement online. I suffered through removing the center console, radio panel, two metal and rubber plates affixing the cable to the firewall, and the tough metal brackets fixing the thick parts of the cable to the car’s frame. It was tedious, dirty, and painful since some of the bolts are located in very tight quarters.

I visited O’Reilly Auto Parts to find the more substantial terminal post that screws the cable in place with a bracket. Unfortunately the counter person could not locate the one I wanted and I had to go back home to find it online. When I returned the guy was able to find the Super Start Battery Terminal, part #SK7401 (http://www.oreillyauto.com/site/c/detail/SS01/SK7401.oap?ck=Search_battery+terminals_N0365_-1_3382&keyword=battery+terminals&pt=N0365&ppt=C000 5) for $2.99. I installed it along with a washer in order for the bolt on which it swivels to fit snug.

The terminal post fit quite nicely and it still had clearance to maneuver even with the bulky bolts end. However I learned I’d need to alter the terminal post because it ended up lengthening the cable beyond the normal operating range. Before the alteration my new cable ended up being about 7mm longer than if the original was still attached. This resulted in it being very difficult to put the car into park and being unable to shift to the lowest gear. Not a huge problem because I was still planning on installing the replacement cable when it arrived. But it kind of bugged my wife despite her having her car back within 24 hours. So the next day I disconnected the cable bracket nearest the engine in order to remove my quick fix. The terminal post only allowed the cable end to fit to the edge of the bracket. So I’d need to grind out a groove in order to move the cable closer to hole on the end. Since the terminal post is made of a soft metal (likely a lead alloy) it was very easy to grind the groove with a drill and a file. With that done the cable could now be moved the critical 7mm closer to the business end of the terminal post. Once that was done, I popped it back on the cable and fitted it back to the engine. The Camry now runs better than before (it was previously having problems shifting into drive likely because of the weakening plastic on the cable end) such that I wont even bother putting in the replacement cable when it arrives. Hopefully I can find a buyer for it on Craigslist and cut my losses.

Thanks again for posting! Perhaps others can learn this solution and save big bucks, time and trouble.

Great post, thanks. I am sure it will help others. Post back as to how the fix is holding up.

Mine just broke, thanks to everyone for the ingenuity and fixes... I'll definitely go that route vs the nightmare of replacing
the whole cable.

p.s. after seeing the pics, what is the plastic part the was refereed to at the end of the cable ??

Does anyone have a pic ? or even a diagram of the cable end to connector on the shift lever ?

There is a plastic ball that is fused to the end of the metal throttle cable. This ball is usually fine on your existing cable, and is what the battery clamp connects to. There was a cheap plastic clamp on that cable from the factory. That plastic clamp is what fails.

Thanks for the help.

I did the battery connector as mentioned. Works great, the only issue I'm having is getting the gear displays in sync.
They are out of sync by 1 gear, from the console to the dash.

I tried re positioning the clamp on the cable but can't seem to tweak it to where I want it.
Is they another way to fine tune it ? maybe at the console end ?

You could try looking at some other battery clamps (some may be shorter than the one you purchased). Another option is to move the ball on the cable forward on the clamp, and then use hose clamps to attach the ball to the battery clamp where you want the ball to be (instead of using the battery clamp bolts). Typically, I find that the battery clamps are just a bit longer than needed.

Right .

It's pretty close now, just off by about a 1/2 gear.... I have tried to fine tune it, but with the ball kinda making a hump for the terminal clamp to go over/around, it's hard to get it just right. That's why I thought there may be an adjustment up on the other side, in the shifter console area.....

Do you know if it can be adjusted at that end ?

I do not see any way to adjust the cable at the shifter end. The video link (above) shows how the cable connects to the shifter.

DIY video on replacing '99 Camry shift cable
 

I know this is a late response but I had the same issue with my '99 Camry and couldn't find much information anywhere on fixing/replacing the cable. I ended up still replacing the cable myself and decided to document the full process to help others who have the same problem in the future.

I didn't decide to make the video until after I had successfully replaced the cable so I started recording at the end of the process and recorded as I put the car back together...then I strung the clips together in the "correct" order. So if the video seems a little goofy keep in mind that I'm working backwards and did my best to put the steps in the right order.

Here is the video:
Hope it helps!

Worked for me too!
 

Just bought a Camry and during the test drive that plastic piece on the cable broke. So I bought the car and got the price down a good bit for it. Thank you all for the excellent guide to fixing it! I never thought to just replace that broken part but it makes so much sense. I used the terminal clam and some washers and longer bolts and it worked like a charm. The hardest part was removing the old rusty bolt. Thanks everyone!

Just tried updating my post and not sure how it is deleted. That was good documentation which is lost :(

Picture to fix
 

somehow my earlier post with detailed steps got deleted. I am attaching the pictures to fix it.

Used this Battery terminal Advance Autoparts AutoCraft Side Post Battery Terminal

Works
 

I applied the same technique here and it worked great.