Can you shift gears without the shift lever in place?

[showme]

Working on my daughters '04 Quest, and while trying to repair the oval plastic console cover, I decided it would be easier to take it off and do it. I finally found how to remove the shift lever, but when I did it, the little black plastic piece that has to be pulled out for removal, and, apparently, the same piece that allows the shifting to take place when it's on there, broke off. While I haven't gotten the console repaired yet (waiting for rhino glue to do the job), I need to move the van temporarily out of the driveway to get my motorcycle parked for the winter. I've found a used one on ebay and ordered it, but i'd like to get this bike moved today if possible.

My question is, is there a way to shift gears without the stick shift on there? What I'm seeing is that when everything is in place (and not broken), when squeezing the front handle 'switch' to change gears, it looks like the knob stays in place but the pulling of the switch/handle forces the white plastic rod down and that allows the gear shift to move to what gear you want it in. Is this correct? So, what I need to know is, is there a way to do this without the knob on? I don't want to get it out in the street then not be able to put it back in gear, since it's currently not legal (no plates) and the police would be glad to give me a ticket for it. Thanks for any help on this. Lee

[VStar650CL]

I'm not sure about the rod on a Quest, some of them pull up instead of pushing down. Either way, there should be no problem operating it without the knob. If you don't use the manual release, it still does need to have the ignition on and the brake pressed to move the lever.

[VStar650CL]

Oh, PS - If you don't know about the manual release, it's the doodad in the pic below. Pressing it mechanically releases the shift lock for emergencies.

Quest Shift Release.jpg (22.82 KiB) Viewed 742 times