I have a 1996 Mazda Protege w/approx. 60,000 miles on it. In July, the gear shift cable broke and my garage estimated that it would cost roughly $550 to repair. I thought that was rather steep and declined to fix it at the time. It has been sitting idly in my driveway since. I have now found another mechanic (about 30 miles away) and want to get the car back on the road. I need to get my car to him and can't afford to have it towed. This past July, when I initially called to have the car towed to the garage, the tow-truck driver had me pop the hood. He did something to get the car in gear and I was able to drive the car to the garage. Can someone tell me what he did/pulled/adjusted in order to get the car in driveable condition? I know very little about cars, but think I could do this with some guidance. Any help is appreciated.
The tow truck driver apparently hand-moved the linkage very close to the transmission, thereby by-passing the broken part of the cable. However, without the ability to post a diagram, it would be difficult for me to adequately describe this to you. Perhaps someone else can attach a link to a specific page from a Haynes repair manual for you.
30 miles is a long way to drive a car with a non-drivable condition and little knowledge.
You don't specify if manual shift or automatic, if manual I would not attempt this as whatever "fix" will work itself loose over that distance. If automatic maybe then attempt it.
If you drove the car to a garage in July (after the tow truck driver manually selected "Drive" at the transmission), then drove it home again, shouldn't it still be in gear?
11/05/2009 8:38:42 AM
