start truck,push on brake,pull down on shift lever on column....won,t move...shut off engine ..restart...same...shut off engine ...push on brake ...slowly turn key while pullung down on lever,comes out of park...so now i have to get it to shift to nuetral to get it to start then get into gear...otherwise it will start but i won't beable to get it out of park...any suggestions before i start disassembling the sterring column tonight

 

check the switch on your brake pedal...the switch activates the solenoid that pulls the pin out of the shifter so you can get it out of park...i had a small problem kinda like yours and it was a brake switch problem..the wire got chaffed..after i had a remote starter installed...good luck i don't think it will be as big as a problem as you anticipate...

 

it,s in the colomn..like i said if i rotate the key switch from lock to run while pushing the brake and pulling the lever it will come out of park but if i just start as normal and the engine is running it wont come out of park...i think something has worked loose in the colomn and it may yet have something to do with the solinoid in the colomn?....and i was planning on sleeping in saturday....gonna be in lubbuck next weekend for my daughters sorority coming out and i dont need it to tottally sieze on me

 

The same thing will happen if a brake light is out. Have you checked???

 

What!!?? How in the hell is one suppose to know that..? Is it in the owners manual? (if so I'm going to feel really stupid for looking this dumb)..

So what you're saying is that if I am out (i.e. not around civilization) and I have a brake light (as in one of the two/three little red lights on the back of the truck) go out then I have to worry about this problem until I can get a new bulb installed..??

 

Did this happen to you, SteveB

TexfordD, actually explained the procedure required to defeat the shift interlock if this happens

 

freking wire cut at the connection terminal to the brake switch...did it when they assembled the connector during assembly....5 years ago..basically cut the power to the switch...so how much do you think that idy bidy connector costs at ford....heres a tip...the switch it self cost 14 bucks....now tell me ford doesnt know they have a problem with these connectors..ready?(drum roll) 28 bucks!!!!!!!for a connector!!!!!let me up,let me up!!!!wwwweeeeelllll being the x oil field worker that i was and having in the past to ni...eeerrr...arkansas engineer things to work i just put a new terminal in to the connector and super glued the casing back together...works like a charm and all in the course of two bud longnecks

 

ha ha it was the brake switch...just kiddin'...glad you got it fixed...

 

yeah you were right...thanks for giving me a area to look at...the switch was fine just the connector...might be a good idea for all of yall with a 97 to crawl under there and disconnect the connector...look at the point where the terminals are crimped onto the wires...i can't believe i did'nt get my *** slamned with no brake lights running

 

Hey, there'll be no ***-slammin' on these boards

Does everyone here now understand the reason why we have a shift interlock???

If it won't shift out of Park, check the lights

 

See it almost once a week at work. I just charge half a hour of labor and solder the wire back to the terminal. ($28). You didnt get rearended because it only just happened when you noticed you couldnt get it out of park, and thats covered in the owners manual about the shift interlock and checking the brake lights. Its not really something that happened wrong at assembly, its just that those 2 wires flex everytime you depress the pedal, and the its gonna eventually break somewhere, usually right where the insulation ends.

PS, why is this in suspension forum?

 

This was interesting. I had no idea about you guys with the autos being locked out if your lights go. What happens to the 5-speeds with that problem?

If what jefflaws says is correct, and reading his many of post I know he is correct, sounds like a real shi*ty design by Ford. You would think Ford would begin to wonder why so many people get pissed any more about the stupid things they dont pay attention to. The repair should be FREE OF CHARGE, (of course the dealers should get paid from Ford to repair it) as far as I am concerned when wiring is not exposed to the elements it should last well over 10 - 20 years with NO problems.

 

to bypass the interlock and drove around for two days like that...you'd figure that some one would at least give me the wave off...or at least a cop stop me....what am i saying!!!!!

 

01 XLT Sport,

You're right in saying Ford should fix this for free. They're the ones that make the mistake of not running quite enough wire, right???

From the Evil Entitie's point of view though, wire costs money. When wires costs $0.01 per inch and they shorten the wire used by one inch per vehicle, they have just saved $1.00 per 100 vehicles produced It'll probably last 3yrs/36,000 miles, right???

The same thing happened with the O/D switch on my F-150 and our '99 Explorer. Ford didn't use enough wire to allow you to get all the way over to 1st gear. If you did, the O/D switch stopped working because the wires broke.

 

AjRagno:

That may be true in how they think about saving money. If they were thinking with logic they might just consider if something like that pissed me off enough to decide not to buy their product and another say 1,000 or 10,000 felt the same way, of which is not many when you consider how many people own Fords, then their way of thinking just went out the door and they lost 10's of thousands of dollors over saving a few thousand dollors.

And you wonder why some of big business are going under Just no logic anymore, just some STUPID words on paper "Customer is number one" ya ok, number one for filling their pockets full of cash...