Replacing A/T shifter cable

[accordaffair]

Pretty much all the A/T CB7 accords I've driven have the "hard to get out of park" syndrome. Some days are worse than others, but it's pretty irritating, and it's not hard to fix.

I bought my replacement cable on ebay. I'm not sure who made it, but it works.

I also decided to make a video of the repair, you can find it at the end. This was my first time doing this, so its somewhat clumsy. And removing bolts is dull so I sped it up, but hopefully you can understand whats going on.

First you need to remove your front console. This is the plastic pieces surrounding the shifter between the seats. I was working on a 93 EX coupe, but other models are similar.









Next, remove the lock pin





Remove the cable bracket bolts







The manual says to remove the center beam, downpipe, and torque converter plate, but none of that is necessary. In fact, seems to me a waste of time. Odd since the manual usually doesn't make you run around for no reason.

Remove the 2 nuts holding the under-car heat shield. The 2 towards the front.





Remove the plate looking piece, 2 bolts, and the cable guide, 1 bolt.





You can now pull the cable through, and out of the cabin.

[accordaffair]

Next remove the cable holder cover, its only a few bolts. You'll have to remove one of the torque converter cover bolts because its attached to the cable holder cover, but don't bother removing the torque converter cover itself.













Bend back the little flap of metal holding the bolt. Then remove the bolt, and pull the shift lever off.







Now you have to transfer the lever from the old cable to the new one. It involves simply unbending and removing the cotter pin holding it in place.



From here on out the matter of installing is just reverse of removing. When running the cable back into the cabin, be careful that it runs under the little plate though. I didn't, and had to disassemble the cable again to re-run it.


Run the cable UNDER that metal plate there
Upon re-assembly, check the alignment. To do that, shift to neutral (with the car off), remove the lock pin, and check how the 2 holes line up. If you need to, undo the lock nut and turn the adjuster until they line up. Reapply the lock pin and tighten the lock nut.

Many of these pictures look low quality because they came from video. I decided to make a DIY video of me doing this repair. You can view it here..

Part 1

Part 2

So how does it shift with the new cable? Like it should! No more binding in Park. Check it out

[bishpuppy]

i love you dude.
i read on how to change it, but reading and seeing are two different things.

I have the same problem, taking it off P can be harder than a virgin.

btw, how much did you pay for the new cable?

[accordaffair]

It's been sitting uninstalled for like 2 years, so I seriously can't remember. Maybe 30 bucks?

It was one of the ebay ones, so it's probably not an OEM piece.

[bishpuppy]

ahhh, thanks. I'll see how much a new one is.

Question: with a new one, would i have to do that "Now you have to transfer the lever from the old cable to the new one. It involves simply unbending and removing the cotter pin holding it in place."??

[accordaffair]

Yes, it's in the manual, so I'm sure you have to do that regardless. It's really easy though, and since there's nothing actually wrong with the lever it would be wasteful to throw it away.

[alifeva]

your my fucking hero to thanks for taking the time to document everything

[C91BLX7]

mine use to stick really bad, but I just sprayed some wd40 on it and just kept going back and forth P to 1 like bam bam bam, and now it works fine

[bishpuppy]

just replaced the shifter cable with one i got from a junk yard...

Wow what a difference.
Question, the "lock pin" thingy, any tricks to put it back on.
removing was easy, but i'm having a difficulty putting it back on.

Thanks

[accordaffair]

the replacement cable I got was shaped differently and I couldn't re-use it. The cable came with a replacement but I lost it. so I had to tear the front piece of the clip off. It works and doesn't rattle or make noise.

I'm talking about the shifter lock pin btw



I had to bend and tear off the piece ahead of the yellow dot...

or do you mean the part that meets the tranny

[bishpuppy]

the same part you were talking about.
the shifter cable meets the shifter itself.

[SN2BH22CB7]

whats scary about this....

is...Me and Accordaffair...has the same exact color scheme..

I have a White 92 EX auto...with the same blue interior

I wonder if its a curse on white autos?


THANK you for providing me a way to getting around NOT unbolting my exhaust..

[accordaffair]

nah, its the curse of all autos, I'd say. Every auto cb7 I've been in has this problem. Funny though, other hondas use this same scheme, my brothers 98 civic uses the same design and it doesn't have this problem.

I new cable fixes it right up, but for how long????

[SN2BH22CB7]

I cant get the damn shift lever off!

on the end of the shift cable....that goes to the tranny...I can't get it off...I took the cotterpin out..and everything...tried beating on the pin side...and NOTHING..

how do you get the damn lever off the cable????????

[accordaffair]

It's hard to say just from memory, can you take a picture?