’93 945T (automatic transmission)

I was parking my car yesterday and put it into park from drive. Something happened and the lever is completely loose. Normally when you shift there’s a light “thunk, thunk, thunk” and a little resistance as it shifts from park to reverse to neutral to drive etc. Now, it’s just moves freely, extremely minimal resistance and no “thunk, thunk, thunk”. I have to push the button to shift from park to reverse to neutral, but with the button down the shifter just moves.

So now I simply can’t shift gears. The car is constantly in drive. I can move the shift knob like I’m shifting the car, but it stays in drive. While driving I can put the car into neutral, reverse, park, whatever – it stays in drive. The only time that the car isn’t in drive is when the engine is off – then it’s in neutral (I can push the car forward or backwards).

Summary:
Engine on: Always in drive
Engine off: Always in neutral
(can’t shift into any other gears)

So, what happened? Is this something I can fix myself?

I found these two sections in the FAQ:

Removing shifter knob

Automatic Shifter is Loose

The problem described in “Automatic shifter is loose” seems to be a generally loose shifter and not a busted shifter like mine seems to be. I can’t shift gears – it’s always in drive. Except when the engine is off in which case it’s in neutral.

Thanks!