Turbo Action Shifter, strange issue

I am having a problem getting this transmission to adjust properly, the transmission I had in before was fine.

Turbo action shifter, cheetah valve body 904, same as the trans removed. All I changed was I added a CSR shield, and re-routed the shift cable, and beat the heck out of the floorpan. I can adjust the linkage where it engages each gear perfectly but will not engage park enough to work the neutral safety. The wheels will be locked(on jack stands) but it will not start. If I adjust to where it starts it will not go into high gear. This shifter has been in since 2010 with no troubles before.

I have another cheetah VB I could install, would that make the difference?

See the attached picture. In the pic the shifter is adjusted to fit the other gear positions perfectly, and the trans is fully engaged into park.

Thoughts?

Have you adjusted it to neutral? That's how I adjust my JVX (Winters) shifter.

Mine works about 50% in Park. It works 100% in neutral so that's the backup plan. I'm not certain but it seems to me there are different length switches. You might also have a bad switch. I'd check the year the trans was built and get a switch for that year and compare to what you have. O'Reily and Autozone carry them. Some shifters have neutral switches built into them too. I don't use them as I like the tranny switch, it seems more durable and accurate!

I have tried that yes, I can either adjust it to hit every gear perfectly but not park, or it can hit park and everything else is wrong.



I switched linkage and neutral switch with the other trans just to rule that out, no difference. I think I am going to pull the VB and compare it to another I have. I have three transmissions here and 4 cheetah VBs, i'll find something that works.

I tossed in an old VB I had that I am afraid to use. I put it in with no park rod and adjusted the shifter and everything worked. It started in both park and neutral and it adjusted right for high gear. I then swapped the 904 park rod onto my known good VB from my 727(that worked for 16 years, 8 of that with this shifter). Installed it, and it doesn't work. Is it possible this trans has the wrong park rod?

The VB I used that I got to adjust(with no park rod) has a different looking rooster comb than the other 2 VBs. I tried to swap it over and it doesn't work on what I assume are the newer VBs. It has a clearance issue with a plate on another part of the VB.

I’ll bite my tongue on your shifter choice and stay on point....

FWIW a 904 park rod will measure 8” from the pin that fits in the valve body, to the end that fits in the pawl.

You know Jay when I went a new best 60ft a few weeks ago (1.437) I thought of you and wondered when it would start shifting itself into 2nd lol.

Ok, this sounds crazy but lots of lots of experience with the threaded stop nut style cables has showed me something I don't really understand.
Align the swivel exactly like the manufacturers instructions indicate. Now, do your adjusting at the cable end, not the swivel.

I have had this issue before with a B&M shifter and fixed it by putting a washer between the shifter cable and shifter where the cable bolts to the shifter. If that makes any sense.

I just fixed my buddy's car that had this issue for years. After adjusting to turbo action specs put additional 1 turn of the threaded pin towards park and try to start, his only took 1 turn, you might need more but I bet not much.

My vote would be the park pawl is wrong.

This.
What you are dealing with is the point of reference. The point of reference being the coarse cable mounting adjustment. I have removed a transmission and just unbolted the cable mount bracket from the pan bolts. Did my transmission servicing, installed the same transmission in the same place and had this issue. There might be just enough slop in the mount holes to cause this issue to happen. Hope this helps.

Digger73 (Mike)

I will definitely give some more attention to that bracket. I had extra brackets but I swapped the ones from the known good transmission during all this. I will move it around some tonight and see what I come up with.

I talked to Paul at Turbo Action and he said the 904 did have some different park rods in the early transmissions but they were pretty rare. I have one more 904 I can take apart to rob the park rod from.

I'll throw this out there. Same symptoms, adjusted the cable every way possible. My bran new shifter arm on the trans had loosened up even though the nut was securely where loctite'ed. I ugged it down as tight as I could get it from underneath, adjusted from N, and works perfectly.

Well, jacking with that cable bracket made everything work. It will start in park and neutral as well as hit all the gears. I guess I have been lucky in the past and just simply installing that bracket and tightening it down worked fine.

Just be careful and make sure its adjusted properly, I also was lucky the last 12 or so times I have had the trans out, time before last not so lucky. i broke a trans three days before the Bracket Finals last year, my very good friend / trans guy got it fixed and back to me in two days. I rushed got it back in and thought i had the shifter adjusted properly but it felt tight. I loaded the car left at five A.M. and drove 2 1/2 hours to Numidia. It still felt tight warming the car up for the first time shot. I staged left ok and when I hit second it fried the trans, it turns out that I had it so far out of adjustment that it broke the rod in the trans cutting off oil circulation thus frying the trans. I race all year to Qualify and my rushing cost me not only the trans but my chance to race at the Bracket Finals. My friend rebuilt it and when i put it back in I must have checked the shifter a dozen times to make sure it was right.