hi guys!
as some of you know i've been working on my steering column lately with ignition switch problems (and other issues).
well the more i learn about my car, the more i see its been "bubba'd" by P.O.'s.
i've always noticed that the back drive lever (which i just recently learned what it was for) never had the cable hooked to it.  it was wired in the "up" position.  this allows me to shift out of "park" when the car is off.
can someone explain to me why someone would have done this? what's the benefit? how safe is it now? 
i cant see unhooking the cable and tying it up to be as common as say, people unhooking the alarm system.  why?? why??

thanks,
jeff

Hey Jeff, Where is this cable and hows it work? On my '80 I noticed that you can shift out of park with the key out. Didn't seem right to me.

Mine was missing when I got the car, but how it works is there is a cable connected if I remember right to the reverse shift lever on the trans, the cable outer has a treaded end and double nuted for adjustment  and goes to a bracket below the lever on the firewall, the cable connects to the lever, when you park the car you put the 4-speed shifter in reverse , turn the switch to off-lock and it locks the steering column and transmission in reverse, on a automatic it hooks to the shift linkage and works the same way but locks it in park, it was suppose to help to keep someone from stealing the car, car thieves are wired, a locking column and trans are worthless today.

jeff,
just like anips said.  i also think its only on '68 to '76 columns

Hmel '742009-09-08 19:35:43

The main reason people would unhook the cable and tie the linkage up was to be able to get the key out of the ignition. The cable would get damaged, stretched, or otherwise rendered f-ed up, so just unhooking it became the easy solution. The downside is, if it falls down on it's own, you won't be able to get the key out.
It works just as described earlier, and the idea was partly to discourage (absent-minded)people from leaving the car in anything other than "Park" when they turned the key off...this helps to keep the car from rolling down the road on it's own.

It IS quite common to see it like that, unfortunately. If the cable is still there, and it ain't froze up, I'd hook it all back up the way it's supposed to be...that's just me, tho.

wire looks like hl, what I did is went to the hardware store and got some zinc coated rod, put a 90 bend on lever end and drilled a hole for a carter pin, cut some threads on the other end  and double nutted it to the cable bracket with a nylock on the bottom, can't remember if it was 5/16 or 3/8's rod....speaking of car thieves I saw a video on Yotube on how to get in a car without breaking the window, you get a tennis ball and put a 1/4 hole in it, you put the hole on the key bezel lined up with the key slot and you smack the tennis ball and the air rushing out of the ball pops the door lock up, who thinks these things up anyway? anips2009-09-08 21:28:21

[QUOTE=anips]...speaking of car thieves I saw a video on Yotube on how to get in a car without breaking the window, you get a tennis ball and put a 1/4 hole in it, you put the hole on the key bezel lined up with the key slot and you smack the tennis ball and the air rushing out of the ball pops the door lock up, who thinks these things up anyway? [/QUOTE]

That explains why I've been able to "absently mindedly" get out and leave my car in drive!  I will be checking this out on my car.

You gotta read everything on this site, you never know when you might see something you need to know about.

Randy, of all the people i've talked to about the subject wheather they liked it or not they all agreed on one thing, and that was that they all had to phyically put it in park or reverse for it to work properly....