auto trans trouble engaging gears

[Gforcefd]

I have a festiva with a auto transmission, when you slide from park to drive you have to wiggle the shifter lever slightly before the car will engage, if not it acts like it is in neutral. Is there a shifter cable adjustment on the automatics that could have possible loosened, or is it more likely the transmission is having issues?

[FestYboy]

shifter cable adjustment (they stretch). mine does the same thing on occasion but not too worried about it.

[Gforcefd]

^Thank you as always, I was hoping that is all it was.

[David88]

I had the trans out of my 90 l plus recently for a flex plate swap. Now it does the same thing going from neutral to reverse. From park to reverse is fine though. Never had a problem till I did the work on it. everything back just like it was. I may pull the console to see if there is something I can do to adjust ion that end. it kind of annoying. Little things like that bug me.

[jtugfestiva]

you need to remove the center console and there will be bolts on the left side of the shifter you need to adjust those to have it perfectly aligned when you shift. When i took my starter out on my auto I accidently stretched the shift cable and that was the only way to adjust it. It was so bad that reverse was drive. So you need to do some trial and error with the center console off. Get a Haynes manual. it shows it in there.