So, for the past few months the shifter on my 09 SS got worse and worse, it was difficult to shift into gears and when in gear it was very vauge. I looked into the connections at the shifter which were fine so I took apart the fuse box to look at the roll pin assuming it was the culprit, well, it looked find and was still holding tight, then i looked farther down at the bracket that held the cable sleeves in place, and i will be damned, one bolt was missing and the other was half way out! this made it that when i moved the shifter this bracket had to move until it ran into some random engine part then it would resist enough to let me shift into gear! Check your bracket that holds your cables in place on the transmission before you assume that you have a dead trans.

There are a few things that may have contributed to this in my case. First I have trans mounts that obvously increase vibration, they are rotated so the trans moved slightly, i have a short shifter and shifter bushings. I dunno why but maybe these contributed to the bolts loosening and coming out.

 

did you happen to take pics of the bolt you are talking about?

 

You know I did not, It was dark and I was tired and pissed off.

Here is a how to that i found about the linkage i am talking about

Drivetrain HOW TO Replace Shift Linkage Bracket - Cobalt SS Network

 

I'm having quite a bit of trouble shifting into 3rd at times(I get blocked at times) and the rest of the gears are very tight/tough to shift as well but I installed a new clutch and TOB and it turns out that my new TOB is faulty so I'm wondering if the TOB is the culprit of my shifting issues? I'm actually hoping it is cause I'm getting it replaced on monday with another new one, I sure hope this one is not faulty!