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Sometimes "park" does not engage

Dibbons

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Re: '72 SSP 318 auto slapstick, recently when I place the selector in Park, from time to time the car begins to roll back as if it were in neutral and it is scary because I'm not in the habit of using the emergency brake. And when it rolls there is no "clickety-clack" sound, it moves in silence. Then the car won't start until I move the selector from Park to Neutral and back to Park again. At Denny's this week the car rolled back into a concrete retaining wall, but at the same time the rear tire struck the parking area tire stop thing that stops vehicles from going past the parking space. So in that case the bumper just grazed the concrete, no real damage.

I'm thinking maybe the shift linkage has lost one of those plastic bushings and there is too much slack in the linkage rods to fully engage park. All the other gears (reverse, neutral, drive) are still being selected as normal. I'm on a road trip so haven't had a chance to get under there and check things out.
 
Same happened to me. I welded up the hole, and re-drilled.
 
The drive rod for the shift linkage is adjustable in some cases. Sometimes it can be just straightened out a bit to get PARK to engage again.
I had this problem with a 727 when I installed a Gear Vendors overdrive. Not good. You think you are in PARK, get out and then see your car rolling.
 
The lever shifting the gears on the trans is adjustable. Put the car in park, Lengthen rod from the trans lever to the pivot while the rear end is up, and test that the locking of the wheels is being done..
 
I've had this same problem as well. You think you're in Park but you're actually in reverse, which is why you are rolling back and can't start the car. You need to adjust the shifter rod.

In the meanwhile, get in the habit of always giving the key a quick turn before getting out. If you are in Park, the starter will engage. If you're still in Reverse it won't.
 
I have the same problem. Once it's adjusted to go into park then trans wont go into low. It's a fine line to get it adjusted for park and low. Mine still isn't 100% yet.
 
I for 5 have had the same problem with my 727 Torqueflite. It turned out to be a simple adjustment of the linkage. Haven't had the problem since.
 
I need to adjust mine as it's done that 2 or 3 times in the past 18 months, but i'm using the parking brake until I get around to it.
 
I don't know what kind of linkage setup you're using, but mine has 86k miles on it and never a problem even after 2 different tirqueflites put in it. Adjustment,adjustment.
 
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