Auto Shifter Misaligned

Hey all, I've been lurking on the forums for a while. I guess I should have joined a long time ago haha. Anyway, I'm having a problem that I hope you guys can help me out with.

The short version is that I drove to work in "N" this morning...

2000 Tacoma SR5 Xtracab 4x4

This weekend I performed some maintenance on the truck. Other than a standard oil change and air filter etc, what I did was start greasing the shaft. I started with the one in front of the front diff, and only got one half of the U-joint done because it was getting down below 40 out when I got done with that one. I took it around the block and everything seemed fine, but this morning on the way to work I noticed that it wasn't shifting out of 2nd gear. So I shifted into N to try, but then realized it was driving normally as if it was in Drive while I was in N. So now, R=N, N=D, D=2 and P=??.

So, I hope you guys can help me out with this. I did my best to try and find an answer, but I couldn't find anything.

Thanks

 

Does it look like this underneath? This is from my 04. You can see that joint is adjustable.

Question is...why did yours suddenly go out of adjustment? Look it over good for a possible cause.

 

I'm not sure where that is that you are showing. The front differential?

 

The side of the transmission. Basically straight down from where the shifter is in the cab.

 

Just lay under the truck right below the drivers door and look at the side of the transmission. The piece going up through the rubber boot at the top of the pic, goes to the shifter in the cab that you move.

 

OK, so you guys think maybe we bumped it while doing the maintenance? I took a pic, it looks pretty normal to me, doesn't look like it's been changed, but who knows. Also, you can see the grease job I did partially in the picture.



Looks like it should be easy to adjust?

 

Mine isn't mis-aligned, but it shifts from R-N-D without having to depress the shifter button. It's pretty loose, not sure if that's reason for concern or normal with these trucks though.

 

R -> N -> D is standard operation. Should have to push the button going from N -> R, but the problem I'm having is a little different. Truck is in drive when shifter is in N position, etc.

 

Seems simple enough... Just re-adjust that. Looks a bit off from the first photo.

 

It does seem simple enough, but is it? If anyone has adjusted this before, let me know any tips you have!

 

Simple procedure, shift the TRANSMISSION into drive, set parking brake first though, then unbolt that bolt, move the SHIFTER into drive and reattach, then check to make sure it works properly

 

Any particular reason you'd do that in drive, then climb under the truck - instead of doing it in neutral or park?

 

Figured drive would be the easiest to confirm it aligned right

 

To adjust the parking lever ,
Put the gear shift lever in Park and " remove the key " .
Go under the truck and loosen the nutt .
Grab the transmission shifter bracket and push it into the park position .
Go to back of truck and verify you cant push the truck by hand making sure it holds in park .
Go back under truck and tighten nutt .
Verify truck only starts in park and neutral