I'm going to bring this back to the top. Just did it, and it's easy and quick. Saved me money and the hassle of installing a new cable, which are both good things. Cost me $2.00, but I have enough 'parts' to do three more cables

 

WOW!!! Those are expensive quotes,It only costed me ~40.00 (plus my own labor) to replace the shifter indicator (prnd, Cable, and all) while I had the dash out to fix the column shift tube anyway, I wish I had seen this before hand, I would have saved that money too.

 

Thank you srfd44 for your idea. I had come up with the tie wrap idea right after seeing what was wrong, but I figured it wouldn't give me the adjustability of the original. Then I saw how flimsy the material they used in the original and decided that even a new piece would eventually break as well but didn't want to do a half a**ed job either. Kept researching while the pointer kept devolving so it became confusing what gear I was in. Could have been dangerous, i.e. thinking you were in N and going through the garage door backwards, etc. Then I came across your post. I'd been trying to figure out a sturdier fix like yours and all of a sudden there it was. With pictures too. Don't know if I needed to or not, but opened up the hole that slipped over the cable to 1/4 inch. Went in perfectly and thanks to whomever it was that suggested putting the transmission into D1 because of the lessened stretch of the cable. I ended up having to remove the front of the dash (kick panel) in order to work freely due to a broken back that just isn't getting much better. This gave me freedom to move around and get at everything with ease. Taking off the kick panel was a pain the a**, and extended the repair considerably (about 1 additional hour), but what the heck, I'm retired so nothing pressing me to finish quickly. The bottom line is that it is back to normal and I can say with certainty it will outlast my tired bones. This work was done on a 2001 King Ranch edition in case that helps anyone. Wanted to thank you and your contributors for a REAL fix and not the tie wrap bandaid.

 

I hope this can help someone with this problem, it cost me $0.45. You will not have to buy the whole cable.[/QUOTE]

I did not have a way to the hardware store so I found a piece of aluminum and started forming it. Thank you for your help and advice. Was an easy way to fix this little annoying problem on the cheap.

 

Awesome shortcut to make this repair! Thanks everyone.

 

Had to register just to say this worked great. Easy and permanent. So permanent, cancelled my order for replacement parts. Tried the glue repair first, didn't make it past the reinstall.
Thanks again for an excellent repair.

 

Update to this problem. Mine, like most others experienced, has had this problem for about a year now and I finally decided to fix it. First, I found a good video by ChrisFix.
I also had a sloppy shifter problem and that turns out to be that the plastic bushings (2) on the shifter tube are shot. A different tech has produced an excellent step-by-step video of the process.
I found out the '99 F150 is quite different under there (he performs the task on an '99 Expedition), starting with the dash lower panel, but you just need to find different fasteners. Clue one is that there is a steel support that is attached to the plastic panel and you do have to remove to (2) 8mm bolts to release the whole thing. The rest are just screws for the hood release, ebrake release & only couple others for the panel to dash supports themselves. There is also a tubular stiffener that should be removed to goes right over the (4) bolts that support the tube assembly so that you can lower the whole steering wheel / shifter tube assembly to replace the bushings.

I ordered a new adjuster wheel bracket from Amazon ( http://amzn.to/1QC7qol ) $8.77 because I needed to order the bushings anyway ( http://amzn.to/2zaBOBC ) $5.07 as I could see that was going to be a much more difficult part to come up with some type of alternate. I also needed some Loctite Blue as mine was pretty old and kinda stiff and this will save a trip to AutoZone or similar.

Both of these guys addressed the propensity of the (2) bolts on the bracket for the linkage to get loose. ChrisFix deals with this problem in a separate video ( ). Once you remove the lower panel and the tubular stiffener to the shifter tube, taking care of all three is very easy to do. I know that this may sound confusing but once you view those three videos, you will see that if you follow those procedures, it is really fairly simple. I cannot imagine trying to fix the adjuster wheel without removing the lower dash panel as I am rather tall, meaning I also have long arms, and I have real problems doing anything under a dash and I am not good at contortion anymore. IIRC, there is also wheel bracket available (at Amazon) - made form metal. I figured mine last around 20 years, and Dorman usually makes pretty good stuff, so I just ordered to plastic one.

I understand that this set of fixes are prevalent on many Ford or Mazda products and the real difference is removing that lower dash panel - but that it fairly straight forward. Oh yeah, the tubular stiffener for the shifter tube is different from what is shown on the video, but that is no big deal either. You'll just need a deep 13mm socket and a long extension for your ratchet or screw gun.

These two YT'ers do an excellent job of producing their videos, with proper lighting and good cam and do an excellent explanation of the procedures. Let me just say that I had become sorta used to the sloppiness there. Now that it is good-n-tight, I am not going to procrastinate this stuff anymore. What a difference.