It has become increasingly difficult to pull the shift lever out of park no matter how level the parking surface is. I have lubed the shifter linkage several times and that seems to help but only for a short time. I think there is something wrong with the "park detent". I really don't want to take my truck to the dealer. Just wondering if anyone had experienced this problem and resolved it. The truck has 54k miles on it and I've had it since new.

 

Did you also adjust the linkage? Maybe it's just hanging up......

 

JPR Ram No, I haven't adjusted the linkage. I will take a look at the shop manual on that.

 

I don't think you can adjust the linkage to effect the park rod. All that is inside the trans pan..
Any adjustments to the linkage is going to effect the trans engagement in all gears equally.
Just my thoughts.

 

I've never done it myself on this truck, but it looks like there is some adjustment after it comes out of the firewall. Maybe?????

I know I've done adjusting on one of my old Chevy's.

 

I'd detach the lever right where it connects to the tranny. See if it's still hard to shift out. If not, then you have an internal tranny problem.

 

If its internal and you dont want to go to the dealer/mechanic, try leaving it in neutral and set the park brake

 

I think that it's an internal problem. I can hear a loud click after I've shut the engine off and start to get out of the truck. This is very noticeable when I park in the garage. It's like when I get out, the truck moves a bit even though it's in park and it makes this click noise. It wouldn't do that if it was the linkage. Sometimes it doesn't make the click and I can shift the lever out of park very easily. As far as leaving the shift lever in neutral, if you do that, you can't remove the key. I guess if it gets much worse I will be forced to take it to the dealer.

 

Are you parking on a slight grade? My tranny has a lot of slop in Park, it moves back/forth a couple of inches after putting in park, If yours is loading up and there is a strain on it , it will be hard to get outta park, I forgot about the key thing, Sorry, so try setting the Park brake first THEN place in Park and see what happens, doing this will/should eliminate any strain on the park pawl,