Reply to "No reverse,2 or 4 - HELP?!"

Well, I solved the issue yesterday, and like the ZF ring gears bolts, it involves a bolt that backed itself out and caused interference.

The little box on the side of the ZF, the selector housing, is held to the ZF case by four bolts: three to the rear gearbox cover and one to the larger gear housing.

The single bolt to the gear housing had backed out and was blocking the selector arm (the piece that encircles the greased ball) from sliding to the three forward position gears. It is a round, allen headed bolt and of course, it is blocked about 10% by the operating shaft. But a ball end allen key seemed to do the trick and I hope it will stay out of the way for another 25K miles.

I've thought of drilling and tapping a small hole (for a set screw) in the tubular boss that spaces the box off the gear housing as the bolt is a single and doesn't lend itself to safety wiring like the ring gear bolts.

I had many hours of fudging with the linkage during which the use of tools (prying and twisting) on the linkage back in the engine bay DID allow me to apparently just slip by the loosened bolt. I guess the forces applied were just different enough from the shifter lingage force lines to allow the selector arm to clear the loosened bolt.

I finally figured something had to be up either inside the box or the ZF, and was filled with glee when I opened the box and found the bolt to be the culprit.

File this one away in your obscure ZF troubleshooting memory - it may affect you or someone else in the future.

Larry