How do you replace 97 Saturn shift cable?

Answer 1

I'm no mechanic, I'm a frugal female who can't afford today's costs. My hood release cable had broke at the lever inside the car. ....I was using a vise grip to pull the remaining wire fragments when the hood was shut....this was obviously borrowed time before those wire fragments would be inaccessible one day so I knew I had to replace this cable. I went to the Saturn dealership and purchased the $27 replacement hood release cable part for my 2003 Saturn Ion 2. The lever and black plastic casing for the wire was included...and contains a fixed tapered plug that fits into the hole through the fire wall. I first removed the plastic molding from the door edge that ended at the middle of the doorway (referenced midway of the driver's seat only along the edge of the carpet meeting the doorframe)...this is held in by clips and one slotted piece right next to the plastic lever for the hood release cable...just lift from the frame base first and work your way up to the lever area and be careful not to snap that slotted piece that slides into the bracket (do the reverse when replacing everything). The molded plastic lever was easily wiggled out of the plastic base so I can now easily investigate my next hurtle, the plastic base of the lever slipped into the metal bracket that's welded to the car. Most clips have a barb so I referenced the lever base on my new replacement part to see where I was to slip a small standard screwdriver head into in order to easily snap out the piece. I inserted the screwdriver head between the metal bracket and the old plastic housing for the lever in the location of the barbs to lift up...and I was able to snap the plastic housing out without destroying the metal bracket. I removed the wire in the front of the car under the hood...there's a knobby thing on the end of the wire preventing the wire from slipping out and is a hook within the metal release mechanism. The black plastic tube surrounding the cable has another important collar from the metal release mechanism under the hood that has to be snapped out in order to free it to be able to be removed (it's about an inch away from that knobby thing). At the collar my old part was broken and easily removed, but this collar is to be kept in mind for the new replacement part....it's important that it's securely snapped in or the hood won't open (I learned the hard way and had at the end to go under the car to snap it in with a long heavy duty screw driver because it's difficult to reach in this narrow area to get any kind of leverage to do this...but I did it after a few words of frustration). I slipped the cable out from the grill and now was at the fire wall thinking it would be difficult to find this hole again to fish through the replacement cable. So I cut the knobby thing and it's collar off the old wire and from the inside of the car slipped only the black casing out leaving the remaining old wire still under the hood near the fire wall and inside the car. I wrapped the old wire around the base of the black plastic of the new part and twisted it around itself a couple of times. I wrapped it all up with electrician's tape covering the old wire all the way up to the end of the new knobby thing on the new part to protect it as I pulled it through the fire wall hole. I went under the hood near the fire wall and pulled the other end of the old wire through the fire wall until the tapered plug on the new part was in place. The new wire casing came with it and easily came through the fire wall. I then fished the free end of the old wire (the other end still secured to the new part) as a needle through the grill up to the metal mechanism of the front of the hood. I removed the tape from the old and new part...and the new wire was unharmed. I placed the knobby thing in it's hook just like the old wire was when I removed it and then clamped the collar into place (or at least I thought I did, it needed more force than I gave it and later I had to go under the car after I closed the hood to snap it into place). BTW, there are 2 plastic wire guards, one near the base of the battery like thing (I know the battery is in the trunk, but there's another battery connection located under the hood, too) and the other clip is inside the car beneath the carpet wall, I didn't find the area where they clamped back into, but the whole mechanism worked and was secured so I don't have any worries about those two little plastic clamps that hold the direction of the black plastic casing of the wire. I replaced the plastic molding as in reverse of how I removed it from the carpet edge and door frame. I believe I saved myself between $100 to $200 by doing this myself.

Answer 2

disconnect the cables from the transmission then disconnect the cables from the shifter but first disassemble the center console ,jack the car up and use jack stands, where the cable goes through the fire wall there is a rubber grommet that is attached to the fire wall and secured buy 2 screws. loosen these screws and from inside the car pull the cables trough the fire wall . to install just reverse the process

Answer 3

If the hood latch in your vehicle isn't working properly, you may have a hard time opening or closing your hood. If it doesn't stay closed properly, this can be a safety issue and needs to be fixed immediately. The hood latch can be easily replaced with a new latch by using a wrench.