Hi, I'm new to the forum
Me and my lady just bought a Camry for its many reasons (looks good, drives good, and is good on gas)
So we bought a 1993 Toyota Camry and its awesome, but after buying it I'm driving the car home and I drop it down into 1st gear at a stop sign, and just drove through the gears (not racing, just driving)
I notice that the shifter smoothly glides up from any gear into all other gears until neutral, it holds the gear that you slide it into crisply, and all the gears work, but when its in drive the 'd' on the cluster doesn't light up for a block or so, and if you move it out of gear into another gear it can be hard to 'find' drive in the shifts of the tranny cause there isn't any resistants between the gears, without looking I can't feel where the gear is (I hope that makes sense)
I can't shift down in this broken fashion though without shifting normally, like from Drive I can't shift down to 2nd without pressing the shift button in on the shifter (like it should be), but I can move it up into neutral totally on accident if it gets nudged forward even if the shifter button isn't pressed in, almost like the wieght of the shifter could cause it to drop by itself from drive into nuetral if I was to slam on the brakes hard enough, there just isn't any feeling to the gears.

I'm a jeep guy, so I'm used to working on cars, but I don't have a clue what this could be
Any help would be greatly appreciated

 

Not sure what the problem is.

Open the hood, find the trans and look for a large cable running to side facing the radiator. This is the shift cable that runs from the console inside the car. The cable pushes and pulls on a lever on the side of the trans. You will be able to see all of these parts clearly.

The trans should have some type of system to keep the lever in one or another gear location and not just flop around.

The shift console may also have its own gear selection system to keep the driver from shifting into reverse and park.

Suggest removing the cable from the lever where it bolts on then determining if the trans lever has any resistance to you gear selection. Do this also with the shift console. One or the other has a problem.

The gear selection indication on the dash is controlled by a rotary switch behind the lever on the trans. It is not some kind of internal trans part, etc. Thus in theory if there were a problem with the switch it could be possible for the trans could be in gear whilst the indicator show it is in Park.

 

Thank you for the help, I removed the cord and tested it, the shift cable doesn't seem to be the problem, the lever from the shift cable to the tranny moves freely by hand so I think thats the problem, but I don't know what it is, I have a picture

 

There is a manual detent spring setup inside the transmission, perhaps the spring broke. You can access this system by removing the trans oil pan.

If you need detailed info send a private message with an email address, I can forward something.

 

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I don't see where my sense (with an s) has anything to do with working on a car. When your about to work on a car you should be learning about what your about to do, especially when working on a new car, even if you've done it before on another type of car (such as my jeep, which is totally differant.) Only dumb wanna be mechanics rely on 'sence' instead of asking questions.
And what was the point of your post anyway, it wasn't any help at all, you just assume that because I'm asking about the tranny I am inexperianced, maybe I'm a body guy, an engine guy, or an electrical kinda guy, maybe I don't know about toyota tranny's, it could be alot of things, but you just toss it out there that I'm inexperianced.
Kinda like me saying your uneducated just cause you can't spell right, its rude, not true, and pointless to say.

 

[Deleted by Admins]

 

I agree with you 100% on your statement about him...... I have noticed it all over the forums and it is rude! Just because someone posts a question or something doesnt make them dumb about the subject. Like you said might have done it on another car but not a camry. So you may post for some wisdom and get this jerk posting hey if you are posting this you shouldnt be doing the work.

 

Toyomoho thank you, seriously, that manual has everything I need in it, now that I see the differances I'm blazing through fixing this car.
Its insane how easy it is to work on a camry.

 

Hi, My 97 Camry just broke today for same problem (Gear is too loose and I can see broken lever when I open the front bumper, I am manually changing the gear under the hood and just drive back home) Could you please send me the same Manual that you send to other user. I am a new user and don't know how to send a Private message here

Thanks