Around 12:30 last night, I started up the jalopy to head to CVS for some heartburn medicine. As I tried to put the shifter in reverse, it...kinda just kept going. Spun around about ninety degrees. I worked it through all the gear positions. 1-4 were fine. But any time I pushed it over to the right, it would spin freely and make fifth and reverse real tricky to find.

So this morning, I took the thing apart. On either side of the shifter housing, there's a little metal pin. The left-side pin had worked its way loose. So I pressed it back in and cinched a zip tie down around it. So far, my little trail repair is getting me around fine.

Any of you guys know how much of that assembly I've got to replace? Can I swap the pin and call it a day? Or am I looking at putting in a new shifter?

 

If it were me i would either find a good used shifter base or repair it (tack weld the pin in place).
The pins on my tranny have a little play but haven't come loose; I'm thinking of just tacking them in place.

 

The shifter housing is aluminum iirc and those pins are long rivets.

Sounds like time for a shifter replacement either new or used.

Sometimes Toyotas do just wear out.

My Latin teacher used to always joke, "old Latin teachers never die, they just decline"

 

My shifter seems to have made it to the ablative...

 

I always see those little pins worn out. We made a custom one for my truck (bolt and nut, ground down and smoothed out) instead of paying $50+ for a used piece (that are almost always wrecked anyways).