I have a 2006 Chrysler Pacifica. I noticed last week that the shifter is getting stiffer to move into gears. I figured because it was cold out, that was the reason. All gears work fine, Just feels like it is not as easy and as fluent as it was before. Definitely has resistance and takes more effort to engage the gears.
Now this morning while trying to reverse the car. The linkage popped off the shifter. What caused this and how do I fix it? The car is still mobile. I took off the shifter cover and pulled the shifter cable out. Right now I am driving by pulling the cable in and out to go from drive to park, using the dash display to let me know what gear its in. I am at a loss for words with this, because although the linkage came off, the shifter now moves effortlessly into all gears. I would have thought something was binding the shifter causing it to be stiff, but that's not the case. And manually pulling the cable to get me from drive to park seems pretty effortless too. I don't know if the linkage snapped or popped off. I never heard anything break and I didn't force the shifter out of park. When I put a little pressure on it to go into reverse as always, that's when it came off. What should I do first? How do I get the linkage back on?