I own a 1999 F-150 Lariat 4x4 and replaced the automatic transmission less than 30,000 miles ago at 80,000 miles. I have had zero problems since that time and that has been 2 years ago now.

I drove it to work this morning and parked my truck at around 6:45 AM. When I left work this afternoon at around 3:15 PM, the automatic gear shift display on the column was all jacked up. When I placed it in reverse, the needle was actually in between the R and the D. I placed it back into Park and the needle would only go between the P and R. I went thru each gear and although it runs fine, it for some reason is displaying the needle in between each of the gears. What gives?

It was working fine when I drove to work every other day, including this morning. I park my truck in a garage every night and was curious if their is something frozen up somewhere? It has been bitter cold all weekend here in my home state of Kansas with lows around the zero degree to single digit mark and highs around 19 or so in the daytime the past few days. Is it possible that something is just freezing up or what? Like I said, so far the transmission is doing fine and this just started less than hour ago when I drove home from work.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

i had the same problem in my 94 dakota.wasnt worth fixing it. take dash off to get to the cable etc..little springs etc.. think about it do u really ever look at that thing when shifting??you know how many clicks are whata gear right?? as long as the actual tranny linkage is tight dont worry about it.just my 2 cents.

 

Simple enough to take the cover off from under the steering wheel and adjust the thumbwheel to get it lined back up.

Adrianspeeder

 

The little plastic tube for the cable has cracked, affecting the pointer position. A quick fix is to adjust the wheel, but the tube will continue to crack & wear, requiring future adjustments. You can try to repair the tube, but replacing it is the best thing to do. Look thru these photos.

 

i had the same prob. but mine was way worse to get into "D" i had to drop it down to "2" and their was alot of play in the shifter. on my 01 Screw 4x4 on the drivers side of the trans their is a white slider clip that the shifter linkage from the coloum snaps into and mine came un-cliped causing all the play. i just put it in "P" got under their snaped it back in and shifts fine now! Good luck!!!!

 

Right now I can adjust that clip on the linkage under the truck to go into park, but the it goes out again a couple days later. Even after I get it to go into park it is still real sloppy in the shifter.

Is that sloppy play in the ****er adjusted in under the colum in the truck.

And is it possible the teeth are going bad under the truck, and this is why I have to keep adjusting it just to go into park. Because once it goes out I can not get the truck in park. It will say it is in park on the selector, but it is in reverse.

Help this is driving me crazy.

 

does it click at the tranny itself?? i mean unhook the linkage, put the ebrake on, block the wheels and try shifting the tranny by hand. if it clicks good there you are ok.

 

Yes the trans is shifting by hand, but it looks like the linkage is moving around instead of pushing itself forward and backward like it is supposed to. It looks like it it supposed to be attached to something to keep it anchored and it is not.

 

not sure in fords i havent really looked at mine before, on dodges there is a pinch type bolt that holds it in place. usually there is only adjusment point for the linkage. i wouldnt worry about the needle thing for now. need tight linkage first. does it have the rod or the cable type linkage???