DieselGeek99

Got this car from a good friend of mine that was sick of trying to diagnose the problem. Basically got it for free and he helped me put another tranny in.

Story goes:

Before he got it, the owner had problems and had the tranny changed. My buddy gets the car and it never shifted quite right. Out of nowhere he goes to drive the car after it was parked for a short time and it wouldn't move. It did buck forward slightly, but was stuck trying to go forward even in reverse. The current tranny we put in didn't seem to want to shift quite right. Kind of hunted for the gears occasionally, but sometimes would shift perfect after the car warmed up (but never wanted to kick down when floored). I let the car idle while i dropped the old tranny off at the scrap yard, go to drive it and the car is locked in first (but will go in to reverse).

I've never owned an automatic car and know next to nothing about them, so ideas on where to begin are appreciated. Thankfully i'm mechanically inclined and should be able to pick up quick on this part that shifts gears for me...

Outre

Having the Transmission locked in First Gear is not a common problem; so there is no pat answer.

Here is something that is not exactly related to the Transmission itself. What if there was an issue with the Transmission Shift linkages?

I know on a Manual Transmission I had one of the external Levers was loose on the shaft the shifted the Gear.
The above probem locked me in Gear when the lever moved but the shaft did not.

DieselGeek99

I lied, it's stuck in 2nd. I can manually shift it from 1st and 2nd.