So I just bought a truck the other day. It is an 87 Dodge Ram. I have had no problems witht it but this was only my fourth time driving it. I was showing somebody how to shift from drive into overdrive and that is when I could not shift back into Neutral, park or anything. The shifter was wobbling up and down. Finally I slowly manouvered it back into park. Then I tried again, it had no problem going into reverse, nutral, or drive, I didn't dare put it into over drive again. It is giving me no problems in Reverse drive or neutral but is this a sign of something really bad. Or could it be an easy problem. He claims it is low kms and the transmission fluid was clean.. Any help would be appreciated.. Thank-You! 87 Dodge Ram V8 with a 318.. Do you think I got ripped off. The Transmission also has a second cooler on it off of a 1 ton. Any help would be appreciated I am kinda dissapointed because it is such a fresh buy ... Thanks! I also forgot to mention when I mean wobbly I mean it was off the grid or something like my notch wasn't moving but the arm was. It wasn't grabbing the gears or moving the notch to show what I was in. It still reved high but I when I got it back it seems to work fine. I never tried 1 or 2 Before and when I did thats when I got ****ed up. Can I get away wih just not using that ever and it will be fine or should I fix this before I keep driving? I'm worried !! THANKS!!

 

have you slid underneath and inspected the linkage? should also inspect the transmission mounts. i would guess if it has a overdrive transmission that someone has swapped it in there since they didn't start using overdrive transmissions in trucks until 89.

 

CW is correct and early Dodge 1st gen trucks only had a button on the dash for OD and only the standard 3 speed PRND21 shifter.

 

Okay your correct. I don't know much about trucks. Its 1 and 2 that dont work just R N and D work.. Sorry and I guess it could be a linkage problem I' mgoing to have to get it looked at unless I know someone who knows how or if it is easy enough I can check myself. Thanks for making me realize lol thats okay tho I just wondered about 1 and 2 .. I wont use them anyways so its not that in convienent but I was wondering if its a sign of the others going on me soon too. Thanks

 

its probably just a linkage problem, in your normal operation which should be D, the transmission still uses 1st and 2nd gear. I would say you just have things out of adjustment, a transmission shop can help you with this. Or you can get a book from the autoparts store and start reading. Its likely that if you purchased a truck from 1987 your going to have more issues than just this so you better start learning quickly or paying a mechanic lots of money. Also this site is a very good resource.