My 97 F150 S/C 5.4 w/ E40D auto trans w/ 128k miles has devoped a sloppy or loose shift lever. Has anyone fixed this before ? I looked in the Ford service manual and didn't find anything directly related. My wife almost got run over thinking it was in park when it was not. Help !!!

 

Well I found my problem. Under the dash at the end of the transmission column shift selector tube there is a plate (transmission selector lever arm) that had the screws (torq) loosened up on. That plate has the end of the shift cable attached to it. The position of the screws does not allow to tighten them up real tight, so snug is all you can get, which works. Best part of this repair, is it cost nothing but 1 hr of troubleshooting and repair time.

 

You may want to crawl back under there, remove the bolts and apply a little blue Loctite to them to further minimize any chances of them loosening up on you again.

 

Thanks Quintin for your suggestion. Funny great minds think a like. When I was under the dash tightening these bolts I was thinking just that (using blue Locktite) to prevent them from loosing again. I'm headed out to the garage right now to Locktite (blue) them. Thanks again for the suggestion as it was a good one.

 

Sorry I missed your first post! Common problem, and congrats on figurin it out yourself!

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