ikautzman

It seems that my gear selector/shifter is broken. It has always been a little tough to get in and out of park, but now it just flops around once the ignition is engaged. Once i first bought the truck (used) you just had to rock the shifter a little to get it into gear or to put it into park, once out of park it moved fine. I took it to the shop yesterday to have the driverside drive shaft replaced and new shocks installed. I had my friend pick up my truck and bring it to my house, he couldn't get it into park. I gave it a try and it was much worse then normal. After wrestling it for a minute or so i was able to get it into park, but something seemed wrong. It was too dark last night to really look at anything so today when I got up I went to check it out. I tried to get it into gear and had no luck, it seemed much much looser then normal. I was unable to get it to drop into gear, and then it just seemed to give away. Now it drops to the lowest position when I engage the ignition and freely moves up and down. I can't even get it out of park to get it back to the shop. They are closed until Monday, any ideas for a fix to at least get it out of park? The break lights work and the hex screws are tightened. Those were the only things i could find to check after doing an extensive search. Does anyone have any ideas on how to get it into drive so I can get it back to the shop? It is a '97 4.6L if that makes a difference. Is the shifter tube broken?

kookookachew

You could climb under the truck with someone inside on the brake, (so it doesn't run you over) and manually shift it into gear by turning the shift lever where it comes out of the transmission.

ottawaguy

Pull off the housing around your column and visually inspect the shift tube. Sounds very familiar to me and the cause of my woes was a broken shift tube. This is the exterior shaft tube that runs down the column from the shifter to the shifter cable.
This occured on a 94 for me, but the shifter handles are the same, so I'm guessing the tube assembly is also the same one. I had a spare in a parts truck and swapped it out in about an hour...and that included a couple of wobbly pops.

ottawaguy

I'm assuming that you are offering that suggestion to save towing costs back to a shop.
If it came to that, I would recommend disconnecting the shift cable at the base of the column and then shift it manually from inside the cab.
This would be a much safer route to go....for a few reasons.

kookookachew

Yep, thats what it was, a last choice kind of thing.


I wasn't positive about how you would do it from inside, and I've had to do the crawling under thing before, so I thought I'd offer it up.