shifting issue

Hi everyone! Today my 2013 ST Limited SE5 decided not to shift. I stopped, to gas up, and it wouldn't shift into neutral. After gassing up, it started just fine, but still in first gear. I had to ride 3 miles home in first gear. Any suggestions? Thanks for the help.


I have already reinstalled the shift lever on the left side. It would appear that it was not properly installed, the pinch bolt was very tight. When I operate the shift paddle, the shifter does not move.

Is there a dedicated fuse for the electric shift?

The shift lever likely fell off. It's located behind the lower panel in front of left left driver floorboard. You may see hanging down. Put it back on the spline shaft.

They don't really fall off very easily but they do come loose. If they have been loose for awhile they will round off the splines and just slip on the shaft. I put a longer bolt in mine and a nylock nut on the other end to make sure it didn't come loose again.

:agree: Mostly they get loose the shaft is knotched and the pinch bolt goes through so they will not fall off but loose they will not shift. There also have been several reports here of the paddle shifter going bad.... the shift arm is an easy check and fix start there .... :thumbup:

Good morning! First of all, I would like to thank the members who responded to my earlier post. Now, here is the result of my issue. I took my ST to the dealer to get it fixed. The verdict was that when I reinstalled the shift arm, I didn't "index" it right. They indexed, the shifter arm and then reprogrammed the computer, now is all good. They charged me for one hour of labor, which I thought was reasonable.

NOTE: When installing the shifter arm, the slot must be aligned with a dot on the end of the shift shaft. However, the tech said that the gear positions would have to be reinstalled in the computer.

Thank you again and I hope this info might be helpful to someone else.

So the shift lever did fall off. It happens. Thanks for letting us know. If you had of come back and asked how to reinstall the arm. Someone would have told you how to line it up correctly. Calibrating the Gear Position Sensor is not necessary but causes no harm and only take a minute anyway.

I just had the same problem only I have the paddle shifter. It won't shift out of 5th gear and as a result,,I can't engage the parking brake. Had to unbolt the battery to get the high pitched squeal to stop.

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Originally Posted by DaveMcC

I just had the same problem only I have the paddle shifter. It won't shift out of 5th gear and as a result,,I can't engage the parking brake. Had to unbolt the battery to get the high pitched squeal to stop.

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The squeal should stop in 30 to 45 seconds. The info above should get you going on fixing your shifter. Remember to index the shifter. Line up the dot on the shaft (bottom of shaft at 6:00) with the split in the shifter.

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Originally Posted by DaveMcC

I just had the same problem only I have the paddle shifter. It won't shift out of 5th gear and as a result,,I can't engage the parking brake. Had to unbolt the battery to get the high pitched squeal to stop.

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You just had the same problem??? What problem is that. Did your shifter lever fall off? Then put it back on. As mentioned aligning it properly. Only you have the paddle shifter?? Well only SE5 models have the shift lever that falls off like the OPs. That the ones with the paddle shifter. Not sure what you are trying to tell us there. Not being able to shift should not normally have any effect on the parking brake. So you need to give us more information. Model and year of your Spyder. Because it could be electrical. Please describe the high pitched squeal. Do you mean the parking brake alarm? It will stop in less than 30 seconds after the ignition switch is turned off. No need to disconnect the battery. Or are you describing some other noise?

Maybe best to start your own thread and clearly describe the issue and all the symtoms. Rather then high jack someone else's thread and get confusing answers that may not apply to you.

I had the issue of the shift lever coming off last summer and not being about to shift.

Now I have the issue of not being able to shift, but it’s not the shaft connection.

I was low in oil and after filling still doesn’t shift, did I burn up a solenoid? And which one? :(


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Originally Posted by SNOOPY

I had the issue of the shift lever coming off last summer and not being about to shift.

Now I have the issue of not being able to shift, but it’s not the shaft connection.

I was low in oil and after filling still doesn’t shift, did I burn up a solenoid? And which one? :(


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There is a minimum 2k RPM(maybe even 3k) on SE5’ before will let make shift from first to second, Low oil will hear it attempt & then go back to what ever gear you were in. If not hearing a solenoid & or something else might be going on. Will it cycle & go into R/N/1 back & forth?

I think I hear it trying to do something, but it just stays in neutral.

It was staying in 1st till I tried to put it in Reverse....now it’s just stuck in Neutral. :(

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Originally Posted by SNOOPY

I think I hear it trying to do something, but it just stays in neutral.

It was staying in 1st till I tried to put it in Reverse....now it’s just stuck in Neutral. :(

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Well, Snoopy, a couple of concerns here. You posted your question in more than one thread, so it is going to be a little complicated for you to get consistent information. Another is that you seem to have made up your mind, already, that it's not the shift arm. Actually, because it's already been wounded, there's a very high probability that, even though it is still on the shaft, that the splines have stripped and that it doesn't have any grip.

So, if it was me, I'd pull off whatever left side panels necessary to get a good visual of the thing, start her up, stand there and operate the paddle shifter and see if the shift arm is operating. Failure to shift can be a whole variety of things than just the solenoids, but let's eliminate the most probable first.

What Snowbelt said. The arm is made of very soft metal so it's splines will strip instead of the shaft. It doesn't take much movement once it loosens to destroy the splines and then you will never get it tight enough to hold very long. Before you take it off look at the indexing. There is a "dot" punched into theend of the shaft. Notice how that relates to shifter lever so you can put them back right. The dot aligns with the slot in the shifter arm.

Okay, good points. I can see the bar that goes to the shaft has not come off like before... but I don’t know that it hasn’t shaved off more of the shaft and is spinning on the shaft. Let me confirm that first, thank you.

I “thought” I repaired it good enough as to not have “that” issue again...but I will confirm. May be this weekend...

Well crap, I ran out there for kicks to see if I could see better under it and the aluminum arm is spinning on the hard shaft again. :banghead:

So I bought a new aluminum arm last time, lock tighten it and the new bolt on. And now 6 months later has happened again? :banghead:

What is a more permanent fix?

Anyone have luck drilling through the aluminum arm and hard shaft and installing a set pin in it?

Another fix? :(



If the hard shaft is ground too much is that easily replaceable or pretty involved?


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Yeah. Frustrating. As has been said, the arm itself is much softer metal than the shaft. But, take it all apart and inspect the splines on the shaft to verify that they are good. Most times, folks have just replaced the arm with a new one, but there might be a few running around out there with J B Weld. That skimpy little screw in the arm does a rotten job of pinching the arm tight to the shaft. You can perhaps pre-compress that a little before you put it on. However, if it was me, I'd look to the racing community for a throttle / fuel injector / blower linkage arm that will give you a tight squeeze around the shaft without relying on splines. Do some Googling. Of course, you would have to make a few modifications to it, but as long as you got the arm length correct and you got the arm indexed on the shaft correctly, that type of arm will clamp down by brute force and you won't have to worry about splines again. Depends on your machining skills.

Replacing the whole shaft is pretty involved, but a member here did that last year. Pretty much the whole other side of the clutch has to come off as the shaft pulls out from the other side of the engine. Up to you. Good luck with it.

I’ve fabricated/mocked up worse before. It is hard to get to, but would love to be able to drill in a set screw.

Will have to look how bad it is...and if my locktightened bolt backed up.

Thanks again for the input.

when I replaced my shifter I put a longer bolt thru it and a nyloc nut on it so it can't come loose.

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Originally Posted by pegasus1300

when I replaced my shifter I put a longer bolt thru it and a nyloc nut on it so it can't come loose.

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That’s a good idea if the bolt came loose, I’ll have to check.



So maybe I’ll JB weld it, longer bolt and set pin. :roflblack:


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So today I put some JB weld on the connection and used a longer bolt w a nylon nut on it as suggested.

Was going to drill and roll pin it, but as I started drilling the only spot I could access w a drill the bit broke as it hit the hardened shaft...so left it with just the JB and longer bolt.

Drying over night and will check it out next ride. Thanks for the suggestions.