gear selector

[bluevost]

Hey POGgers,

I have an issue with my gear selector that I wanted feedback on. I have the "soft button" gear selector and when the outside temperature gets to 45 degrees or less, I cannot get the bus into gear. Sometimes it takes as long as 15 - 20 minutes. After a few minutes of ideling, I can sometimes get it into reverse, keep the parking brake and the foot brake on, and let the bus idle in reverse until the tranny temp comes up, and then I can shift the tranny. I know the fluid level is correct. I took the gear selector out and took it apart, cleaned it with contact cleaner, and put it back. This seemed to help in the warmth of the afternoon, but when I started the bus yesterday morning, the same old thing, won't go into gear without the above procedure. Never an issue during spring and summer months, only when it gets cold!!(California cold anyway). Any thoughts??

Ken

[Ray Davis]

Are you by any chance in high idle? I have had mixed success in shifting into a drive gear when I'm on high idle. Turning to low idle, always works. I had same type of issue with older bus as well.

Ray

[bluevost]

Ray,

No high idle.

KZ

[merle&louise]

Ken,

I had a similar issue with my gear selector. It happened during the summer when I brought my grandson to the Schlitterban water park in Texas. After trying for about 2 minutes it worked and I haven't had any trouble since. I looked for a replacement on eBay and found a few. They seem to run about $650 new; don't know what they are running for now on eBay.

I hope this helps.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Ken,

From experience I can tell you there are several things that may be an issue. Obviously the key pad can be one of the contributing factors. But we had an experience where the transmission thought it was too cold to switch. A sensor internal to the transmission needs to see a temperature in excess of 20 degrees F if I remember right. You need the codes read when this is occuring. On ours the sensor was reading 20 below zero when it was 50 degrees out so that was an easy diagnosis. Do you ever get "do not shift" messages?

But the multi pin connector can also be the issue. If it has any corrosion it can corrupt the messages being sent and received from the ATEC computer. Again this is something a reader will detect, but you can plug and unplug the connector a few times, and if the problem dissappears it was likely some corrosion.

[bluevost]

Jon,

I never get a do not shift message. Would that show on the gear selector display? BTW, I can change the mode when it's cold, no problem. Where is the plug you referred to? Down on the tranny case I presume.

KZ

[MangoMike]

If it comes to pad replacement, Harry had a source that as I recall would sell a rebuilt unit very reasonably.

Mike

[bluevost]

Thanks Mango. I wonder if you can replace the soft button pad with the plastic button pad. It would be nice if it was just a "plug 'n play" exchange.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Ken,

The connector was on the transmission. It was the wire bundle going to the transmission computer.

Exercising that is a free attempt to fix.

After that everything else starts to run into some Lewbucks.