I found a replacement overdrive/button on the gear shifter of my 88 Maxima at a junkyard and cut it free from the wiring that runs down through the shifter on the junker and want to replace mine which won't stay clicked down. When removing it from the junker, I removed two screws from the backside of the shifter and pulled up. The only unexpected thing that happened was the shifter lock( the one held in while moving through the gears) ejected from the shifter handle and a spring came out.
I was hoping that someone has done this type of repair before and can help me with the best way to keep everything from flying apart from inside the shifter on the one that I need to install the overdrive button onto. I was thinking that I might tape the shift lock button "in" and then slip it off the post, hoping this can be confirmed by someone else, as another mechanic seemed Leary of attempting to remove the shifter at all. He said "something bad is probably going to happen if i remove that" don't know if he was speaking from experience or fear. Thanks in advance.

P.S. I am planning on un-soldering the button from the 3 wire pair from the tranny(I assume) and solder them back in the same positions and then re-insert the new switch into the shifter and put the shifter back on and screw it down. It looks like I may not even need to remove the shifter head if I can drop the shifter into L2. and get a mini-screwdriver and cordless solder iron.

lowpost99 wrote:I found a replacement overdrive/button on the gear shifter of my 88 Maxima at a junkyard and cut it free from the wiring that runs down through the shifter on the junker and want to replace mine which won't stay clicked down. When removing it from the junker, I removed two screws from the backside of the shifter and pulled up. The only unexpected thing that happened was the shifter lock( the one held in while moving through the gears) ejected from the shifter handle and a spring came out.
I was hoping that someone has done this type of repair before and can help me with the best way to keep everything from flying apart from inside the shifter on the one that I need to install the overdrive button onto. I was thinking that I might tape the shift lock button "in" and then slip it off the post, hoping this can be confirmed by someone else, as another mechanic seemed Leary of attempting to remove the shifter at all. He said "something bad is probably going to happen if i remove that" don't know if he was speaking from experience or fear. Thanks in advance.

P.S. I am planning on un-soldering the button from the 3 wire pair from the tranny(I assume) and solder them back in the same positions and then re-insert the new switch into the shifter and put the shifter back on and screw it down. It looks like I may not even need to remove the shifter head if I can drop the shifter into L2. and get a mini-screwdriver and cordless solder iron.

Moderators? Any thoughts on this or if should be in another area?

You're in the right spot. Let me see if I can get someone in here that might be able to help out.