Hello all,

I have a '93 F-350 2wd with E4OD transmission. About 45 days or so ago, I replaced the transmission in the truck. Shifter has been working just fine until today. I had hooked up to a heavy trailer and had to start out on some soft ground. I pulled it down into low and was able to move the trailer without any problems. I was moving it a short distance on my place. When I came to a stop, I tried to put it into park, and it wouldnt go. It went into Reverse instead. Like I said it worked fine up until today, but now I have to put it into neutral to get it to crank and can not get the parking sprag to engage. Is this a shifter cable out of adjustment? If so, how would I adjust it. I am looking for any insight or "you should know" type advice before getting in over my head. I know the range sensors can be touchy so I dont know if it has anything to do with that. Im thinking/hoping its mechanical and an easy fix/just need to readjust something to fix it. Thankfully my parking brake will hold the truck while it sits in neutral, and I am chocking the wheel just to be doubly sure, but I want to get it working as it was intended once again. Any input would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Ed

 

Check the back of the shifter on the steering column for loose or missing bolts. If its missing a bolt check the floor or under the mat, I have found them there more than once.

If the shifter is good then get under the truck and inspect the linkage for anything preventing it from going into park.

Then disconnect the cable from the shifter arm on the transmission, try to push the shifter on the transmission to the park position if it wont go then you will have to remove the pan and inspect the internal linkage.

 

Ok so I have found the problem. Apparently the shifter cable has seperated so it only has tension applied when the cable is getting shorter so to speak. In other words it will move the shift lever from reverse to neutral to drive etc but it will not push the selector back to the park position. Now I no longer have reverse without getting under it and moving the shift lever into park, recranking the truck and then the shifter will put it in Reverse. So I have to change the shift cable. The parts store asks which trans the C6 or E4OD. They carry a cable for a C6 but it says not avail for the E4OD. This seems odd as the C6 is an older model transmission. My next question is what is the difference in the E4OD cable and the C6 cable? Length, how it mounts to trans, or what? Im hoping that Mark can chime in and clear the air for me. Im really hoping this isnt going to turn out to be a wild goose chase finding a new shift cable. I have also heard they (shift cables) can be a large pain in the **** to change. Any input would help.

Thanks for the help.
Ed

 

The way things are organized at Ford, I didn't have anything to do with shift cables. If it was outside the trans I had no knowledge about it.

I also don't know why one would be different than the other. The C6 and E4OD have exactly the same number of detents. I thought the manual portion (that's the shift cable and the valve that the shift cable controls) were identical. Maybe not. Number Dummy may know if there are two separate parts.

 

Back from the dead..C6 shift cable is longer simply because the manual lever, and thus the ball where the cable pops on, is ~5” further towards the rear of the vehicle than the E4OD from where they mate to engine