1980 Aspen transmission park bypass.

[318wagon]

I have an opportunity to pick up a 1980 Aspen parts car from a shop nearby, but they do not have keys. Is there a way to get the car in neutral without a key so I can pull it onto my trailer. It has a floor shift auto trans. Really don't want to pull the driveline, but could if I have too.

 

[Oldiron440]

Remove the shift linkage from the transmission and shift it into neutral using the arm on the transmission.

 

[Aspen500]

Are you sure it has a park lock?

I'm not familiar with an '80, but floor shift '79 doesn't have a lock. You can shift out of park without a key.

 

[DCAspen]

You won’t be able to turn the wheel without the column being unlocked

 

[318wagon]

You won’t be able to turn the wheel without the column being unlocked

As a matter of fact. The guy just informed me he locked the steering wheel when he was in it the last time, so I will have to pull the steering wheel and ignition cylinder.

 

[Aspen500]

Might be quicker and easier to take the column locking plate out and stick the steering wheel back on. Just an idea.

 

[Ele115]

It should just shift into any gear you want. Use a floor jack or dollies to move the front end into position before winching it or pushing it onto the trailer. Make it straight then winch it up

 

[OLDIRON]

Remove the shift linkage from the transmission and shift it into neutral using the arm on the transmission.

Yep, do that.
And remove the drag link from the pitman arm for steering it on to the trailer. Don't be messing with the steering column.
Or just rent a tow dolly from U-Haul and use a pair of floor jacks to drop the rear of the car onto the dolly for a short tow home.

 

[Ele115]

On these cars the door lock and the ignition is keyed the same. You can use the lock cylinder in the door to impression it and make keys. Damaging the steering column, would be ridiculous and pointless. This is so easy if you know what you're doing it's a few minutes. If you don't know how to do this a locksmith is a lot less than a steering column. If your skills are not that good the door lock MAY have to come out and the pins pulled out to make a key. But usually you can impression them without taking anything apart. These are not even real locks. They are wafer cylinders. That's one of the things that made the old cars so easy to steal. Using the door cylinder is a lot easier than the ignition cylinder for obvious reasons.

 

[XfbodyX]

Way back thats what some repo men did if they did not have a key. Slim jim the door, pop the door lock out and have an ignition key in short order. If one took the door lock to the lock shop it would not be very costly. Or even a mobile locksmith fee might be worth the grief as you might want a key to it all at some point.

 

[Ele115]

You can just do it with a key blank and a file if you have had any practice. Auction cars never have keys these days. I have been down this road too many times. At least it is an old car. On the new stuff it would be $550

 

[XfbodyX]

Another simple fix just to move it to a better location is take the bolts out of the rag joint and manually move the tires. So many easy temp fixes just to get it home.

 

[Ele115]

There may be an app to steer the wheels from the phone

 

[kkritsilas]

There may be an app to steer the wheels from the phone

in a 1980? You sure about that.

Its like when I told somebody about a fuel filter issue I had on my 1980 Cordoba. Instant response was "What do the codes say?". I told him there were no codes. He was surprised when I told him that. I got "Maybe the battery is dead". I told him that there were no codes, because there wasn't an ODB port in the car, and there wasn't and ODB port because it didn't have a digital computer, or for that matter, fuel injection. His mind was blown.

 

[GregG48213]

digital computer

Chrysler did have a diagnostic port under the hood for a few years around this time. Of course, this was many years before OBD. I had such a port on my 1980 Gran Fury. In seven years, I never used it for anything.