
Originally Posted by
Irving
On this week's episode of FUCK YOU, AMIGO!, The Shift Cable.
I damaged my shift cable several years on the Amigo. I was trying to loosen the nut on the shaft that holds the arm that the cable attaches to, without removing the cable. This is a common thing that amateur noobs like myself do. It breaks off the plastic ears that hold the cable in place, and also tweaks the cable so that after you zip tie it back into place, it still doesn't really operate correctly. The shifter will move into the park position, but the transmission doesn't recognize this so even though you can get the key out, it won't start and the parking pawl won't engage so it will roll around requiring you to use the e-brake all the time. My wife learned the tricks and was able to drive it this way just fine. It caused a problem I parked the car and my frail mother-in-law couldn't undo the e-brake and I had to leave work early to pick the kids up from school.
Anyway, the truck has been sitting for over a year and the plates have expired. In the past, we always ended up driving by a mobile station and never had to go in, but since no one has been driving it, I'll have to take it down to emissions and I don't think they'll deal with that BS. So I ordered a new shift cable directly from the factory for $157ish. The cable was only $87 a few years ago when I broke the cable, but I was a lot more poor then. Isuzu is no longer in the US so getting parts is like getting machine guns. I had to order the cable from a guy on another board who can drop ship stuff directly from the factory. So I get the cable, but it's not quite lining up with the RMS. As you can see in this picture, it's like a half inch off. While before the gear selector was pretty consistent about what gear it thought it was in, now it is a hard one gear off (P = R, R=N, etc) and won't start in any gear. At one point, I couldn't even get the keys out. This pisses me off because I've spent damn near $160 to be in an even worse position than I started!
We all know how vague and inaccurate cheap repair manuals are, and with this particular brand, pretty much everything needs to be obtained from forums because the manual blows especially hard. The manual says there is a way to adjust the cable (there isn't). I happened to talk to a friend today and mentioned this in passing and he three way calls his mechanic uncle who also tells me there is a way to adjust the cable length (there isn't). Well, a bench vise (purchased from some chump on here), and a drill MADE that bitch adjustable. Now everything works perfectly and I'm clearly a master mechanic.
A couple side notes. While I've had a track record of breaking shit when trying to fix it, I've been taking my time and doing a much better job. I managed to disconnect the shift cable from the shifter in an utter cluster fuck of tight spaces that would have certainly broken my spirit in the past. I DID accidentally break one of the plastic ears on the brand new shift cable that was the problem in the first place, but everything is holding together. Tune in to next week's episode of FUCK YOU, AMIGO!, The Third Brake Light.
tl;dr - FUCK YOU, AMIGO.