Purchased my first Ford truck yesterday. 1995 F150 Supercab w 161k. 351 Windsor.

The shifter on the column is pretty sloppy. Last night, when I pulled out of the driveway, the OD light was flashing and the up shifts were banging pretty hard. I decided to put it in park and shut it off to reset it and I couldn't get it to restart. The lights all came on in the dash but the starter wouldn't engage. I suspect that it didn't know it was in park because cycling down to neutral and back to park allowed it to restart and it was back to normal.

Questions - is this normal for this age/mileage? What's involved in swapping out the shifter? Should I hunt the junkyards or buy it new?

Thanks

 

Google this problem and you'll likely find two loose bolts at the bottom of the shift tube which will have to be tightened. I went through this a cou;le of months ago. The DIY fix is fairly staightforward.

 

Thanks! That was it. Snugged them up to see if that helped and it did. Next I'll remove them and use a bit a threadlock. The there is still "slop" when you look at the underside while moving the lever which i assume is worn bushings but I am going to just go with this for now as it's much better and good enough.