My truck isn't driven as much anymore and yesterday with a big snowfall, I decided to move it off the street for the plows. When I went to put it in park the column shifter felt like nothing was connected and getting the truck into park wasn't working. After digging around and finding the shift linkage flopping around, I think I found the issue (the trans still worked if I got under the truck and pushed the shifting lever around and it was just rebuilt 4 years ago).

I found this image online and seems to be the best so far:


My issue is the mounting bracket in the lower left yellow box sheared off both of the mounting bolts. So it seems to just flop around and not engage the transmission unless I move the truck all the way down to 1 or 2.

So I wondered if anyone could tell me

1) What might have cause the issue (was the bracket just loose and years of shifting the truck just wore out the bolts)?
2) Bolt size on that mount? I would guess they are SAE, but I'd hate to chase the threads and mess it up more.
3) Is it worth taking all the linkage apart to clean and replace the bushings (assuming they can be bought) or will I mess things up further? I'd hate to "fix" it but not be able to get the truck in park again because I didn't get the adjustments right.

 

Not sure if the bolts are SAE or metric, are they still around?

Bolt the bracket back where it goes. Cleaning things up really isn't a bad idea. I do believe the bushings are still available from the dealer.

 

The studs are still stuck in the frame. I assumed I'd likely mess them up pretty good removing them though.

 

Hit them with chems for a couple days. Then grab 'em with vice grips, and see if they will come out. If you can, might just run 'em out from the outside.

 

The bolts are broken off flush with the frame and there is no access to the backside of them. I am hoping drilling with a left twist bit will do the trick, but right now its much too cold to worry about it.

 

Could use either direction. Some heat wouldn't hurt either, same for the chems. if you use a standard drill bit, if they actually break loose, they will just fall into the frame. (and produce an annoying rattle no doubt....)