On a recent trip we met our friend at a gas station on way to our destination in the Santa Fe National Forest. She was at the gas pump, but when she put the Travto info “Drive” it wouldn’t move – and while the shifter was in the “Drive” position it showed a “N” on the dash. The Travto is built on the Dodge ProMaster chassis. A quick google search turned up this recall on the shift cable, where a ProMaster won’t go into drive. Below is a Temp FIX that will get you back on the road!
In order to get back on the road in case of a similar failure, you have to manually put the transmission into the desired gear.
Start up the van, and put the shifter in the D for Drive position. Set the emergency brake.
This is the drivers side under the hood on a Travto/ProMaster. While someone is inside the van, moving the shift lever, look down where the red circle is. You should be able to spot movement – looking for where the shift cable attaches to a lever coming out of the transmission.
- Use these metal tubes to orient yourself.
- This is the defective shift cable
- This is the lever coming out of the transmission.
Your goal is to move Lever #3, this will change the gears on the transmission. You’ll have to reach down in there a bit by feel, it’s tight in there. But you will find the lever indicated and push it in the direction of the arrow (towards the rear of the vehicle.) Might be easiest to have someone inside the van that can tell you when the dash shows D for Drive.
You can push the level in either direction until you reach the desired gear on the transmission.
And that is it. It really helps to have two people, but if you have to do this by yourself make darn sure you set the emergency brake!
