I am looking at purchasing a 1986 V6 Automatic transmission SE that the owner said he drove home and the next morning it would not shift into gear. Could this be a TCC problem, a cable issue, or something more sinister?

Thanks

TCC issues seem to occur once the transmission is warm, at least mine did. Works fine when cold going up/down through the grears. You stop and the transmission sticks in third gear. Hard to get the car going in third ghear

Is not the TCC.
Buy it. put a 4T60 in it. Drive it untill the wheels fall off.

It could be low trany fluid, broke pump, some thing stuck in the valve body, bad linkage.
I have had them were they did the same thing. Put it in gear and rev the **** out of it and it would brake loose and drive. But see the 2nd line.

Could also be the $5 in change that's fallen into the console and blocked the shifter.

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It may be a small problem? Remove the shifter handle by removing the horseshoe shaped pin on the dash board side of the handle. It should just lift off.
Now try to shift into gear by depressing the shifting shaft by hand. There is a small plastic part inside the shifter handle that sometimes breaks. There is a post here someplace that shows clearly what this looks like.

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Thanks for the replies.

The gearshift moves but it will just not engage(I should have made that clear but it was early in the morning when I made the post and I had been up a long time.). The thing has new tires & very nice chrome wheels. Black paint job, not professionally done but adequate and a very nice price. I am going to purchase it but I just want to have somewhat of an idea what I am getting into with it. I need to buy it and trailer it before I go through these simple procedures. I just ran an AutoCheck and Carfax on it. It has 158,xxx miles on it soooooooooo.... just wondering if they have changed the transmission fluid and filter lately.

had that happen in 3 cars. the plastic end (where the cable goes onto the trans linkage pops off. (Lousy design) new cable or a "Tie Strap".

I was playing with it a bit today the linkage moves the lever on the transmission. It will not start when the transmission is put into drive or any other position. The one thing I noticed is that there is a position that is fully counter-clockwise that I could manually switch to, but the gearshift would not go there. I am totally unfamiliar with the working of the transmission.

One thing I also checked which has me a bit worried is the fluid level. It was way more than over the hash marks on the dipstick. Can't this cause a high pressure situation in a trans? If it does create a high pressure can that blow the seals? I am a noob so if these questions sound off the wall please forgive me. I have a little information so I am dangerous. Are diagnostics codes triggered when this happens and when this happens, do the codes have to be erased before it will act normal again(After taking out the extra fluid)?

My big dilemma is should I buy it ?

Short answer: Buy it!! Do the 4l60 thing.

Suggestion: You should be able to remove the shift cable while the transmission is in park. Have someone stand on the brake with the engine idling and the handbrake on, then try to shift it through the gears by hand. This will at least remove any questions about the shifter or shift cable. And I would be really curious about that gear position you can't get to, is it possible someone's already tries a transmission swap?

[This message has been edited by Fiero Okie (edited 03-22-2013).]

I also had something like this in my camaro. the linkage that the cable is hooked to, that is "supposed to change the gears INSIDE" , inside the trans, that shaft Broke a weld, and it didn't matter what gear you put it in ( And it did "feel like" it was actually doing something because the part that moves, has ridges that a Roller is held into by a spring) well, if that shaft broke, you cannot change the gears without replacing it. just a thought, very wierd situation, never saw it before or since.