I have a 2010 Ram 1500 with the 5.7l and the 5 speed automatic with the console mounted shift lever.

Today after driving for about 1 1/2 hours on a gravel road stopped the truck and went to put it in park the shifter went to the N position but wouldn't move beyond that. When the truck was about 6 months old it did the same thing trying to go from R to P after driving about 15km on gravel.

Beside the shift lever there is a small access that has a red button in it and when this happened the first time I pushed the button and it seemed to fix the problem today that button didn't do anything. Initially I thought the shifter was electronic so I disconnected the battery in an effort to reset the computer which did not fix it either.

In all the fooling around with it I ended up getting the shifter into P but not the transmission (the truck was rolling down hill)...this is where I learned what the little red button does, it releases the lock on the shift lever to get it out of P. I wiggled the lever around and finally it began to work smoothly, well smoothly enough to get the truck driving down the road again but I stopped about 5 km up the road and tried it again and it was stuck in D again.

By the time I got back on the pavement it was working fine again. I spoke with the dealership and it was recommended to inspect the shift cable or the problem could be in the transmission. I have crawled under the truck and the shift cable appears to be good what I did find though is some fresh scratches on the side of the transmission housing adjacent to the shift lever so what I think has happened is a small pebble got stuck between the shift lever and the transmission housing but I could be wrong and I can't get it to do it again.

Has anyone else experienced this? If so did you figure out what it was?

 

Could have got some ice/snow packed up there

 

I once had my shifter get 'stuck' like that after driving in some early season slushy snow. The slush/snow packed up alongside the shift linking and physically blocked things. I had to spend some time under the truck poking the packed slush mixture out of there to free things up. Your idea of a pebble or other debris getting stuck in the linkage makes sense. It seems the RAM could benefit from some better underbody shielding from road debris.

Rob

 

Definitely not snow or ice as we didn't see a snowflake all day...just rain, but most of the driving was on gravel which is why I figure a small pebble.

 

Thanks...I am not sure how some armour could be put in there with the catalytic converter right there but it might not hurt to look into it. At least I know I am not the only person to have this problem and if it happens again crawling under and looking at the linkage will be the first place I look.

 

Wouldn't hurt to have a small dowel in the truck to use to poke obstructions out of the way if you encounter this occasionally.

Rob

 

I always have a screwdriver on board...it just helps to know where to look when it happens. Incidentally I do know where to look now!!

 

Just curious, when driving on the gravel rd, did you have the 4wd engaged?

 

No I was in 2wd the whole time.

This is a picture of the scratch on the side of the transmission housing.