Chevy Silverado shifter seized.

[Old Ironmaker]

I have a 2011 Chevy Silverado 1/2 ton 4x4 pickup, my wife bought for me brand new, oh what a gal she is. The 4 wheel drive shifter is on the floor not a selector on the dash. Last month when we got some snow and that snow turned to ice my wheel was spinning hard in 2 wheel (1 wheel actually), rear left) I went to put her into 4 high and the shifter wouldn't move at all. I know better to give it a whack with a hammer. I took it into my guy that is run by 2 brothers in thier late 30's, young puppies, and I have never had an issue with them. Mr. Mechanic said the linkage is siezed, almost welded together and it is going to be big bucks to free it. He did not give me a price and told me to trade the truck in. Any suggestions other than to dump the truck. I was surprised at his suggestion. I'm always telling people like my wife to use her paddle shifter once in a while, use it or lose it. I hardly drove last summer for a number of reasons I never had her in 4 wheel drive, my bad but to sieze up 100%??? Brother #2 said the bottom of the truck is covered in rust. I would expect that as did not get Z Bart, do they still do that? I crawled under the truck with a welding hammer and the frame is solid as a rock, I digress, again.

Johnny D, Selkirk Ontario. On the pristene north shoreline of the great Lake Erie..

 

[GA_Boater]

Hey Iron;

Just like we tell the the salties working on their motors and such - Soak the linkage points and apply some heat while your lovely bride works the transfer case lever.

Maybe some love taps with the welding hammer. I only use mine for freeing rusty stuff, no more welding.

I take it you're stuck in 2 Wheel High.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Hey Iron;

Just like we tell the the salties working on their motors and such - Soak the linkage points and apply some heat while your lovely bride works the transfer case lever.

Maybe some love taps with the welding hammer. I only use mine for freeing rusty stuff, no more welding.

I take it you're stuck in 2 Wheel High.

To say I am mechanically challenged is an understatment. You lost me at "soak the linkage points." What's a linkage point? I'm all out at "righty tighty." Not as challenged as in lectrsitee.

 

[Scott Danforth]

there are two reasons they tell you to shift into 4 wheel drive monthly.

reason #1, so the linkages dont rust together
reason #2, so the gears/chain that is above the oil get lubricated and dont rust.

when was the last time you used 4 wheel drive? if its been over 2 years, suggest you pull the transfer case and split it to inspect.

regarding the linkages, you need to crawl under the truck and lubricate the linkages.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

there are two reasons they tell you to shift into 4 wheel drive monthly.

reason #1, so the linkages dont rust together
reason #2, so the gears/chain that is above the oil get lubricated and dont rust.

when was the last time you used 4 wheel drive? if its been over 2 years, suggest you pull the transfer case and split it to inspect.

regarding the linkages, you need to crawl under the truck and lubricate the linkages.

It had been a year almost exactly since I used 4 wheel drive. Besides the other 8 billion plus people dealing with this pandemic I had a bad health year and didn't even get the bottom of the boat wet. I regularly, not always but regularly put her in 4 high and 4 low launching and retreiving the boat. No boating, no 4X4. Simple, mia culpa. Don't know what looks better, mia or mio? I am always asking my wife if she excersized all the options in her Kia. From paddle shifting to rear windows. I think, no I know I drove my Shift General Foremen bonkers reminding him to remind his foremen to have all operating equipment excersized when we were shut down for hours at a time, especially, most especially to run all the many valves and such and keep the plus 1 kilometer of belts moving at all times. I made a check list and plastisized it for everyone. Can you imagine anything freezing on a Blast Furnace? I do. I do not practice my preaching.
To get back to the real business at hand I am responsible for the problem that I will pay for, then I might trade it in because I love my truck, and my wife of 29 years coming this St. Paddy's Day. Go Irish, even though they stole our Italian flag. Get yer own flag Mic.

 

[Old Ironmaker]

Where's the edit feature folks, please.
Text should say I love the truck because my wife bought and paid for it. But with 180,000 KMS it may be time to swap it for a new Silverado. And it will be a Silverado, if you see me in a Ford run me down, same goes for that God awfull Ram thing. I get the scifose just thinking about those brands.
And there is the edit feature, exactly where it was when I joined here.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Where's the edit feature folks, please.
Text should say I love the truck because my wife bought and paid for it. But with 180,000 KMS it may be time to swap it for a new Silverado. And it will be a Silverado, if you see me in a Ford run me down, same goes for that God awfull Ram thing. I get the scifose just thinking about those brands.
And there is the edit feature, exactly where it was when I joined here.

180000 kilometers is barely broken in. most vehicles are designed for 180,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers for a design life. a bit of TLC on the T-case and youre in business

 

[Old Ironmaker]

180000 kilometers is barely broken in. most vehicles are designed for 180,000 miles or 300,000 kilometers for a design life. a bit of TLC on the T-case and youre in businessdoes

You know what Scott? After I typed 180K kilometers is high I thought about it for a second and though no way. It depends on who you are talking to I guess Scott. I asked one of our maintenance guys that does the work on our vehicles why my wifes Kia was having so many things fail lately*. He said 200,000 KMS may be a reason. Her Nissan Altima's tranny finally went, can't remember the newer technology used for that transmission, anyway it had 650,000 kilometers on it, 403,000 miles and didn't have a scratch on it and you could see your face in it like looking in a mirror with that jhet black paint and that 3.5 lt V-6 was bullet proof. Gave a pals son the car for parts. He found a used tranny for 700 CDN and did the work himself, he got a very nice high mileage 2005 Nissan Altima. Pay it forward. In 1971 a pal of Dad's sold me a 1963 Pontiac Parissien 2 door hard top for a dollar. A Bonneville in the US I believe. I am dropping off the truck for brakes Monday and going to look for this mechanic to explain to me how only 124,000 miles is high on a vehicle today. In 1973 an old Buick that had 100K miles you probably towed it into the scrap yard especially if you were saving money by not changing oil because of the price of a barrel then. Many of us dough heads did just that. That and you could probably pull large chunks of rusted metal from the rocker panels by hand. By the way we live in southern Ontario Canada. South of Buffalo.

* Price of high pressure fuel pump for 2014 Kia Optima, $1500.00 CDN, approx. $1150.00 USD. I looked everywhere across this globe for any replacement OEM or not and could not find a better price thn I was quoted by me guy, EBay says that we are all out of $550.00 fuel pumps but we have the 1150 buck fuel pumps ready to ship you Johnny D!!!