Console cluster (and shifter repair)

While driving my Orange LS I found some funky shifter action, and have read other posts about a spring breaking, and I needed to pull the console for some detail work to clean the car anyway. So I pulled the console out, and took apart the shifter to get to the spring. It is a small spring about 3/4" inch long, and holds the shifter shaft vertical when in park. It pulls the shifter to the driver side to push on a sensor that allows the key to be removed. So when the spring breaks it makes getting the key out kind of a hassle, and just flops around when put into park.

I pulled the spring yesterday so I will hunt for a generic replacement at the hardware store, here are a couple pics I shot this morning, please ignore all the dirt, it was super nasty in there! lol Takes about ten minutes to get into it, the first mystery was how to get the shift knob off, I had to unscrew the chrome trim at the bottom, this let the ball turn a bit, and I was able to get it off in one piece. Then I carefully pulled the shift trim plate (mine was already broken on one side, so it will get some epoxy on reassemble to fix) then I was able to remove 4 bolts that hold the upper cover of the shifter housing, then the spring is right there attached to the shaft, and clips to a plastic tang.

I will try to snap a pic with the new spring in place, I failed to get a pic of the broken spring before I pulled it out.

If you cant find a generic replacement try GM Parts Direct: Your direct source for Genuine GM Parts. Hopefully they will have it.

No luck so far, seems they discontinued the gate style 05-06 shifter, and was only listed for the whole unit, but the linear style in the 08 may be available. I might grab one on eBay for a spare as my girlfriend likes the straight pattern shifter more than the gated style in the 06.

that seems to be a common problem with Gated shifters, something inside them breaks, and either you can't get the key out, or in some cases you can't get them out of park.

Found a suitable replacement from ace hardware, kinda pricey at a buck. this is #77 from the spring assortment they have.

For the record, I wound up using spring #74 from Ace hardware, as the first one was too long, and did not have the pulling power I needed. Here are some shots of the new spring installed for reference.

I wound up pulling the whole shifter mechanism, but only so I could clean and lubricate it and clean the sticky unknown 'stuff' that had collected there underneath in 239K miles. I know this is a family website so I won't go into detail what was found while cleaning this car LOL - However the shifter works like it should, and is nice and clean now. All fixed! - Oh and this new spring only costs .85 cents. :)