So I backed out of my driveway the other day. Put my truck in reverse and everything was fine and normal.(auto tranny) When I went to put my truck in drive, I heard a pop. My shifter began dangling and now I can only shift it from reverse to 2nd gear. There is also a lot of play with my shifter. I cannot put it into park at all. This means I cannot remove my keys from the ignition either. I crawled underneath and manually put it in park but I still cannot remove my keys. Does anyone know by chance what is wrong? Is it a broken shifter do you think or steering bushings? I think that my shift cable is ok. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
'97 f150 4.6
auto tranny

 

sounds like the dtents in the shifter on the column

 

That has happened a couple of times to an E150 van I drive at work. Sounds like something is broken in the column. The last time it happened to me, some metal parts fell out from under the dash. I don't have any more details as I just had our mechanics fix it and didn't ask them what it was.

 

more than likley a broken shift shaft bolts to top of column
pull column down easy to change
Mitch

 

The same thing just happened to my truck tonight. I'd like to fix it asap. How difficult is to drop the column?? I've taken the dash all apart before to replace light bulbs in the back of the gauge pod, but never dropped the column. Mitchykins, any more info would be great.
Thanks.

 

Same thing happened to my 04 Navigator a few months back. I had to get the airbag suspension rebuilt and took it to the Lincoln dealer. Got it back with a broken shifter and didn't make it 10 feet before it broke. The tranny and all of the mechanical stuff was fine. It was just a stupid plastic piece of the shifter itself that broke. Sounds exactly like what your problem is. My shifter had a ton of play in it too when and after it happened.

 

When that happened to me a couple of weeks ago it was because of a bolt in the shifter that had worked its way out. My brother in-law who is a tranny guy fixed it for me in about 10 minutes. He said it happens to fords all the time.

 

Totally makes sense. I just found the bolt laying on the floor in the truck. I'm glad it didn't take long for your bro-in-law to fix - hopefully i can get it done quick.