The "OFF": light on my gearshift lever comes on after I have gone through a few gears and blinks. The truck is not in overdrive. When I turn the engine off the light goes away for the next start, but comes on again ater I'm down the road a llittle ways. I can't sense anything amiss in the way the truck is shifting gears etc. What sort of problem could this be and is it major? Don't particilarly want to buy a new tranny! The truck has 120000 easy miles on it.
1998 F150 Lariat Triton V8

 

it is indicating a fault in the transmission, you need to go get the code scanned and see what it is, and how bad its going to be.

does the trans "feel" okay?

 

My blinking OD was a sensor gone bad.

I think it was about $160 ($80 parts and $80 labor).

 

Code scanners at Autozone can't read out Ford transmission codes, you need one more sophisticated. Dealers and better shops will have one. If it's shifting normally, it shouldn't be anything major.

 

I'm having sort of the same problem. Except on start up my OD light says it's off of the colum. But sometimes after going down the road for a few mins it'll shut the light off meaning that OD is on. This is the only thread I really saw a similar problem to mine in. What did you end up doing, OP? Our ford dealership shut down so it's going an hour drive to a Ford Dealership, anywhere else that you know of that can run codes? BTW I do have a Gryphon, can't that read codes? Oh and the truck is similar to the OP's, 2001 F-150 4x4 with 133,500 miles on it. Always been babied, and the tranny still shifts just fine and most of my driving is in town so I really haven't noticed a hard shift or anything else other than the OD light is on, which means it's out of OD.

 

You got that backwards.
Light On = OD Off

Light Off = OD On.

Manufacturers know owners want to see as few things lit up as possible.
95% use the OD, so the light is off when in use.
On those occasions when you do lock out the OD, the light is On to remind you of the evil deed you did.

 

No I had said it right. But the light comes on with start up, even if I were to trun the light off (turning the OD on) and shut the truck off and restart it. The OD light would still be lit up as if the OD was off.

Either way, it's gotta just be a sensor correct?

 

Yeah, you did said it right, my bad.
Mine blinking OD was a sensor gone bad, I really didn't notice or feel any shift problems but, I got it fixed pretty quick before something went south.

 

No problemo dude, I was just like WTF you said the exact same thing I did!

Anyhow, how did you come out to find out it was a sensor? I'm guessing you took it to a dealership and had some codes ran? I'm thinking I'll take it to a local engine specialist sometime this week and let him run the codes. I think a guy who works with my dad might have a scan machine as well. But the gryphon didn't pull anything up when I went to run a scan?

 

I had the dealership read the code and repair.
Like I said, I couldn't detect anything wrong driving it.
To me it was just a blinking light that meant give the stealership money, the bastids!.

 

Ya the Ford dealership shut down about a year ago. So I know a family type friend that does some engine tuning and stuff like that. I'll either have him take a look at it or if my dads co-worker has a code reader I'll use it.

But see with mine it doesn't flash it just stays lit up like I've accidently hit the button, but it does it continuously so it can't be by accident.