Can't shift to 2nd, 4th, 6th

Driving home and notice i couldn't pull back on the shifter to get into 2nd, 4th, or 6th. R, 1st, 3rd, 5th gets into gears fine. Is this a bad shifter cable or is it something else?

There are two cables, one to the left and one to the right of the trans. Sorry, I don't recall what functionality each performs in selecting the gears, but it sounds like one of them is not functioning. Maybe one side slipped off - most likely on the trans end. You can crawl under the rear and see the connectors - although jack or ramps are better. If they both seem securely attached enough that you can - with your hand - move the cams fore and aft (with a bit of resistance) the problem might be at the shifter. That's not a quick job to get at. It would involve removing the center console. When my cable broke, I couldn't do anything with the shifter - it just flopped around limply. I was stuck in whatever gear it happened to be in when the cable snapped.

Agreed - Sounds like one of the two cables are at fault. I remember seeing somewhere online (not sure if it was on P9) what each position the two cables should be at (at the transmission), which may help you quickly rule out which cable is at fault. Cheering you on and Happy New Year!

Thanks, I'll give that a look next week. I installed a short shifter back in 2016 so i had the center console off once already, not fun. If i have to yank off the console again this time, I'll go ahead and pull the hvac controls and replace the worn buttons too

The cable that is failing is the one on the left side of the engine, it controls the fore-aft motion. If you can't get into the even-numbered gears, your cable is not pulling far enough forward (when you pull the gear lever back). The cable may have slipped off the ball at the transmission bell crank. More likely, I think (since you can access the odd-numbered gears), is that the cable has "stretched" because some of the cable strands have broken. Check the situation under the car at the transmission before you remove the console.

You can see the cables if you pop the boot off which is a 20 second job. At least enough to see if they are moving at that end.

FYI - Per popping off the boot, be sure to remove it using a plastic trim tool FROM THE FRONT of the boot.

Keep us posted - sounds like a cable issue. I actually have an issue with 1st and 2nd where I can't easily, swiftly shift to 1st and 2nd about 20% of the time (80% of the time no issues and easy / soft with just 2-3 fingers). Plan to use this to "align" the shifter and "adjust" the cable at the shifter end - this also requires to removing the center console (have done it before and need to do it again in the spring after I remove / store my hard top - and when I did this I totally forgot to reconnect the softop open / close switch ;-) ).

The shifter cables are on both the right and left side of the transmission right? I was able to see the right side from under the car, not sticks out as being bad. Will check the other side tomorrow

So it was not the cables. Even with the cables disconnected I couldn't push forward on the shifter. It looks like it's the shifter itself and something to do with the pivot for the shifter handle. The bolt or whatever you call it appears to be seized to the shifter handle. Pushing forward, or pulling back on the handle rotates both the nut and bolt, as you can see it is eating away at the body. If i loosely attach the nut or leave the nut off, the handle moves, but any tightening of the nut you'll feel friction. You can see shavings from the nut eating away at the body. I assume at one point the bolt and nut was supposed to stay static, while the handle rotated on the bolt. Anyways, I have to decide if I want to spend the money for the numeric shifter , OEM short shift kit, or B&M.

If those are the original cables you should consider upgrading them to either the OEM 981 - or Numeric ones. Enjoy spending the weekend researching which is better. Numeric sells an entire kit I believe as well as Suncoast .

The factory "sport" shifter is probably the easiest to install, as it is designed to drop right in and work with the connections to the cables without any modification. I got mine from Pelican or Suncoast (can't remember which) and it came with the green alignment tools someone posted above. That said, I recently switched to the Numeric . I'd go straight to the Numeric . You'll have to do a little modification to the cable ends, but seeing as you got your car's console apart, you've already proven to be more than capable in the mechanic department. Let us know how it goes!

Had the same problem driving home from a track day. Simple fix. The previous owner installed the Numeric short shifter and cables. For forward gears, on the driver's side at the transmission is where the cable attaches and has a threaded portion on the cable at the end, which goes through a bracket and a nut to hold it in the 'adjusted' position. The PO didn't tighten the nut good enough, and the nut backed off enough to when one tried to go into 2nd, 4th,6th gear, on the cable moved and not the trans lever to change the gears. Very cramped in there. I could tighted the nut up with my fingers but did not have the small wrench that came in the Numeric kit. Ordered on for $10. Added some locktite and tightened as hard as I could. Fixed the issue....

What mods needs to be done to the ends? I ordered the Numeric , it is backordered for about 3 weeks though.

There are several good vids on YouTube showing the dismantling of the center console and the tips and tricks needed to avoid breaking any plastic tabs. Certain parts require a little coaxing and finesse, but after watching the vids you’ll have the info needed to complete the job without damage.