I am wanting to change the shifter in my RX300 from the brown leather one that it currently has to the black leather and wood shifter I just got from Pull-A-Part. When I removed the wood shifter **** and chrome piece from the shifter rod I ended up having to cut the OD wire at the connector deep down in the shifter mechanism because there was no way to get the connector out of the mechanism and I couldn't tell how the wires were connected at the OD cutoff button. The wires run from the connector up through the inside of the shifter rod and terminate inside the shifter **** at the OD cutoff button. Does anyone have any idea how to remove the wires from the OD cutoff button? Does this trim at the button come off? I cannot find a diagram about this anywhere. Thanks for any help.

 

Your attached picture has cropped the bottom end.

The one I am familiar among various Lexus has the shaft and the grab separates above the tube and the connector stays down in the tube.

Salim

 

That piece comes out, how exactly I don't know.
https://www.japan-parts.eu/lexus/us/...0C0#9016840127

"Proper" way to remove the wires is de-pin from the connector on assembly at the factory the reverse happens.

 

I watched a video of a shifter removal from a Lexus SC300/SC400 and the removal process was very similar to the RX. Slide the rod cover down to expose 2 screws, remove screws and the shifter **** just lifted away, no wires hanging down though. It looked like there was a connector in the rod that the OD button plugs into and when you lift the **** upward, it simply unplugged. The guy was also able to remove the OD button and trim surround with a flat blade screwdriver.
Here are some pictures of the inside of the shifter.
There has got to be a trick to this, I mean, at the factory I'm sure the thing just plugs up.

 

Thanks for that diagram. It looks like the buttons and the trim around them come apart and when I use a small flat screwdriver or panel removal tool I can kind of get under that piece but it just won't pop loose and I don't want to break anything. I guess I could always just splice in the two wires if I have too, would have to figure out which wire goes with which wire, only two wires but they are both blue.

 

Just a guess but thinking they may be the same color because polarity won't matter on contact switch(if I understand what's going on).

Plz confirm first with wiring diagram unless you can tear your old one apart to see just in case I am worng.
I'll pull the schematic when I have time to confirm unless someone else has it handy and wants to jump in.

 

I installed the shifter today. There was no way to disconnect the wiring at the OD cutoff button so I removed a few panels so that I could cut the wiring for the old shifter and splice in the wiring for the new one. I used crimp connectors and shrink wrap tubing to seal everything up. It took some time to do this but I really like the results.