Last night I was ******* my truck out and got back to the spot where we were at at my trucks shifter was easily moving from 1 through park and back while not shifting the transmission. I got under the truck and found that what looks like a thick metal cable (sort of like a small pipe) which goes from the firewall to the transmission lever was loose. It seems almost like it was extended or something. I don't know whether it uses a cable or linkage from what I've read. Do I need a new cable/linkage or does this just need to be adjusted? I had to manually move the lever to go into gear and park (which was fun in a bunch of mud). When I did get it into gear the guy in the driver seat said that it seemed like the shifter was stuck and didn't want to move. Any ideas?

 

UPDATE:

Got up under the truck with daytime eyes and it's certainly a cable. What I thought looked to be a pipe was the hard covering around the cable itself. When I move the shifter the cable moves but there's too much slack on it to move the transmission lever that selects the gears in the trans. When I go from park towards d1 the cable just moves down instead of moving the lever. Do I need a new cable?