So everything was fine this morning, I leave for lunch and put it in park at fast food place and notice that it's actually in reverse and it pushed the little indicator on top of column up out of its housing a little...I figure well, I'm right around corner from house let me take it home and I'll take a look tonight. I get home and try to put it in park again and the shifter is totally loose. It has nothing but free play through all the gear selectors. It doesn't grab anything. What have I broken..lol any advice?

Edit: I checked linkage at transmission and it is changing gears from steering column in engine bay down to trans

 

The 'pot metal' shift collar has an internal bridge that connects it to the shift tube. Over time the bridge begins to crack, eventually snaps off.

Now you aren't going anywhere, as the shift lever flops around.

D5TZ-7228-A (replaced C5TZ-7228-A) .. A/T Shift Collar Kit - comes with the plastic pointer that slips into the slot of the collar / Available from Ford and repro parts sellers.

Applications: 1965/77 F100/350.
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Look at the nylon bushing on the A/T selector lever at the bottom of the steering column. If it has cracked apart/disappeared, you can move the shift lever, but nothing will happen.

EOSZ-7341-B (replaced C7SZ-7341-D ~ C8OZ-7341-A ~ C9TZ-7341-A and etc.) .. A/T Selector Lever Bushing / Available from Ford.

1969/79 F100/350; 1973/79 Bronco; Misc 1960's/80's Passenger Cars.

 

Yup, agree with Bill on this one. Probably the shift collar.
Ignore the P/N, it's a generic picture.

 

Mine started getting stiff and travel was screwey ..... then one day ...... I fixed it.
https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/1...witch-tab.html

 

Thanks guys. The shifter never gave me any issues, just out of the blue, gave me one issue and blamo.lol
Time to buy a collar..

 

My brakes failed at low speed (under 5mph but at the top of a hill) and I threw it into Park (e brake was broken) and ever since my pointer hasn't pointed.. Still shifts find.

Same part broken on mine?

 

I doubt it. When the shift collar fails, it becomes like my ex-brother-in-law, shiftless .
If the shifter still controls the tranny okay, I would say you probably need to adjust the linkage.

 

Had the same issue. I still remember sitting in the parking lot deciding what to do next. Finally got under truck and moved it into drive. Got back in the cab, fired it up and drove the fastest route home.

You will become well acquainted with your steering column by the time you have it repaired.

 

After being on many forums over the years with mediocre responses ,if any; I am still amazed at the GREAT responses,advice AND pictures in this forum !!

 

Replaced the sleeve this morning and shifter is back in business, had to do s little aligning though as the gear indicator was off by one spot. Park was actually pointing at reverse. Did some searching on here and found the walks rough to do this. I'll say a couple things about this project..
1. It was a pain in th **** to try to get all the wiring out of the way to get the sleeve out
2. My sleeve literally fell apart in my hand it had dry rotted so much, looks to be oem part from 41 years ago so got to give ford their props on designing this and mass manufacturing it
3. The part I order online is cheap and is from China and looks like somebody made it in a 3D printer from resin compound..lol
4. Ordered a new signal cancel switch as well as the right turn signal cancel wasn't working. This part also came from China and is cheap as a pier hooker when a carrier docks
5. Thank god for FTE and all the knowledgable folks here, it's literally almost like having a second set of eyes behind you to set you straight if you go a little to far down the wrong path. Everyone who takes pictures and does the how to's..well, they say a picture is worth a 1000 words. In this case you got thou true and an additional 1000 words to tell you what those pictures mean.

The job isn't as complicated as I had imagined or worried about in my mind but it's tricky getting the sleeve lined up and everything buttoned back up inside. Just take lots of break down pictures so you can see how it goes back together, this is a good habit to do anyways especially with modern cell phones and the ease of referencing them.