[Silver Bullet Smart]

Hello,

I was driving my 451 this evening and had to get on it to merge. I’ve been having the 3 bars issue for a few months now but it’s random when it happens. Tonight, when I pulled over to reset by slowly shifting through gears...it wouldn’t go back to showing (P,R,N,D) like it normally does.

I’ve been planning on doing the maintenance to the clutch actuator but now it’s stuck and need to figure how to get it either running or rolling so it can get towed.
Does anyone know why it would be stuck in a gear and not reset after the transmission has been “retaught”?

Thanks in advance!

 

[SLIVERS]

Is the shifter handle not going in to neutral?
If the clutch actuator broke and it was in gear the computer can't figure out where it's at, and can't push the clutch in to change gears, so it just sits there kind of stupid.
Can you hear anything moving (the whirr click sound) when you turn the key on and off?

 

[Silver Bullet Smart]

Is the shifter handle not going in to neutral?
If the clutch actuator broke and it was in gear the computer can't figure out where it's at, and can't push the clutch in to change gears, so it just sits there kind of stupid.
Can you hear anything moving (the whirr click sound) when you turn the key on and off?

it goes into all gears. Upon stopping I felt a “lift” like the car was being jacked up. Normally reset procedure works.

before I would hear a squeak the. Clicking, now seems to be gone and only does squeak once and still won’t reset.

 

[gtdump]

If you need to you can disconnect the cable at the parking prawl lever to manually engage/disengage the prawl. I haven't done this myself to move the car, but it should work to allow the car to be rolled.
The lever for the parking prawl is on the rear side of the transmission, on the drivers side. You'll see a cable which connects to it.
Here's a shot looking up from underneath. You can see the driver's side shiftmotor for reference and the arrow points to the nut that secures the prawl.

 

[Silver Bullet Smart]

If you need to you can disconnect the cable at the parking prawl lever to manually engage/disengage the prawl. I haven't done this myself to move the car, but it should work to allow the car to be rolled.
The lever for the parking prawl is on the rear side of the transmission, on the drivers side. You'll see a cable which connects to it.
Here's a shot looking up from underneath. You can see the driver's side shiftmotor for reference and the arrow points to the nut that secures the prawl.
View attachment 64915

Oh ok. Great, I wasn’t aware of this. Thank you!
So I would just loosen that bolt then and upon removal should be able to roll?

 

[gtdump]

Oh ok. Great, I wasn’t aware of this. Thank you!
So I would just loosen that bolt then and upon removal should be able to roll?

Once you disconnect the cable/lever you should be able to engage/disengage the prawl by twisting the rod the nut connects to. Careful not to mangle the threads. I am not certain which way enages or disengages, you'll have to experiment and report back your results. I'm at work otherwise I would test it for you.

 

[SLIVERS]

Is the car stuck in park?
Thought you said you could move the shifter lever?
Should not need to disconnect the parking pawl lever unless the cable is broken and not moving the lever?

 

[Silver Bullet Smart]

Is the car stuck in park?
Thought you said you could move the shifter lever?
Should not need to disconnect the parking pawl lever unless the cable is broken and not moving the lever?

I can move the shifter in ALL gears! But while in N it doesn’t move!

 

[SLIVERS]

That being the case I would highly doubt that the "parking pawl cable" is broken or at least in all my years on here have never heard of that.

 

[gtdump]

I merely mentioned the parking prawl as a "get it off the road" stop-gap, not as a cause or solution for anything but immediate recovery.
The likelihood that the cable is damaged is very low, I don't think I've heard of one yet.

I would presume the cause is likely shiftmotors or clutch actuator, but that's just a guess.

 

[jwight]

If you lift up the center console and get down where you can see under it you'll find the "yellow lever" that may allow you to move the car. There's an old thread about it but the photos are missing. The yellow lever is visible from the drivers side of the raised center console.

Magic Yellow Lever

I have been trying all day to get the "Magic Yellow Lever" to work. I have pulled straight up, pulled back, pulled forward. Nothing works. I have pulled and tried to pull shift lever out of park at same time, tried with foot on brake, foot off brake. Can anyone tell me how this is supposed to...

www.smartcarofamerica.com

This video shows the yellow lever:

 

[DRIFTERSMART]

the pawl lever goes rearward to lock and forward to unlock...

 

[gtdump]

Did it help to get the car moved at least?

 

[Silver Bullet Smart]

Hey guys, thanks for all the help.

I guess my battery was too dead to do the reset I Normally would do. I had the terminal disconnected because the alarm had started going off randomly and while I was in Vegas didn’t want it going off lol. Jumped the battery and was able to reset . Going to do the clutch actuator maintenance and hope that fixes the issue.