Hello, I own a 1993 Ford Explorer XLT 4x4, automatic tranny, and have a problem that has my mechanic stumped, so I'm hoping to find help for any kind of insight.

I use it for delivery work (which means lots of shifting into reverse and back, from backing up, turning around, etc.), and a couple weeks ago, out of the blue, the gear selector would stick/jam in Drive and not move out (99% of the time in Drive, unsure if coincidence or would stick anywhere), the shift lever could wobble around a bit in that gear, but not change. It would either randomly unstick, or would seem to come free sometimes after moving forward a bit (really annoying when objects/buildings prevented forward movement). This might happen once or twice in 30-50 such gears changes, the amount I do in a typical day.

After about a week, on the exact day I planned to take it the shop to get it looked at, the gear selector became completely unstuck. Meaning it seemed like the shift lever no longer had connection to the transmission and would just slide freely through the gears. My mechanic said it needed a new TV cable and replaced it, and that seemed to do the trick.

Then, after a few days (even before I might get lucky and it wouldn't stick in a given day or two) it started doing the same old thing, sticking/jamming on me twice in one day. Took it to the shop again and they're unable to replicate the problem, not suprising since its hard and undesirable for me to replicate on demand. Not desiring to have them do "exploratory surgery"(perhaps into the steering column where the gear lever is), as that would inevitably cost an ample amount of money, any thoughts what the problem might be?

Thanks.