hi guys, here is a synopsis of my current situation and issue:

2009 TC with over 160K miles

Recently cracked the top part of the shifter assembly, the piece that holds the shifter ball in place. My shifter gets frozen during the winter and I was hitting it hard with my hand to loosen it up. I cracked the plastic, which made shifting into 5th difficult for a while. The crack has gotten worse and worse, and I started having trouble the past week or 2 getting into 1st and second gear when downshifting. Now I cannot get the gear in first or second at all. I replaced the cracked plastic piece and put new cable clips on, hoping this would fix the problem, but I still cannot get it in 1st or 2nd, only 3rd, 4th, 5th, and reverse with a little extra effort. After some research, I am guessing it is the roll pin, but shifter cable could maybe the the culprit as well. Or maybe I need a new clutch or the tranny is shot... Hoping it's not the latter. Anyway, what do you guys think? Should I start with the roll pin?

P.S. The thread with the roll pin fix seems promising but the pictures are not loading which makes it harder for me to follow. Anyone have updated pictures showing the process??

 

Your cables are probably stretched. Punching your shifter to break it free is a terrible idea.

Replace the cables. If they freeze they're shot anyway.

 

I know punching it was not a good idea... Was just frustrating during the winter when it happened every morning. Cables might be stretched i Guess but first and second we're fine until a week ago... All the other gears work fine. I literally can't shift into first or second even after playing with the cable linkages (clips). It's like something is blocking my shift into those gears. Any more suggestions? Trying to see what my best option is here

 

I would second this. Cables only adjust so far, if you have stretched them you may not be able to account for that by moving the clamps. Have you tried to manually move it into position on the trans with someone pushing in on the clutch?

 

​​​​​​No I haven't but seems like a good idea... How would I go about doing so?

 

Easiest way is to pull the fuse box and reach down to throw the lever. While you have the box out of the way you can also check your roll pins. If you have a snake camera or bore scope you can get on it, or use your smartphones camera to see if it's still in there.