I can't seem to find it, but a while ago I posted a thread complaining that my 1995 Ford Bronco Eddie Bauer with the 5.8L gas engine and E4OD transmission would not start unless I first turned the ignition key to the "Run" position, put the transmission Shift Lever into Neutral and started it. It turned out that the problem was the Brake Tail Light fuse was blown, because the vehicle will not start from Park without the Brake Peddle depressed and the ECM doesn't know if you have depressed the Brake Peddle if the Brake Tail Light fuse is blown.

At the same time, I also complained that the transmission Shift Lever was sloppy, and at the suggestion of others here I looked to see if the two Torx screws under the dash on the steering column were loose. And I did look and found that (what I assumed were the correct torx screws) were not loose.

Well the sloppiness problem has gotten worse so I decided to delve into it deeper. And I watched every youtube video I could find on the subject I could find, and then looked back under the dash found this:






So the torx screws in the foreground which were tight were not the ones which are attached to the end of the shifter receiver tube. Clearly you can see that the torx screws in the background (which are higher up) are the culprits because they are attached to the end of the shifter receiver tube to which the transmission shift cable is attached.

According to videos, you should only remove one torx screw at a time (because there is a spring in between them which will fly off if both are removed at the same time). Then thread locker should be applied and the torx reinserted and tightened.

I will do that and I will also replace the shifter receiver tube plastic bushings before I put it all back together.

Here is one of the videos I watched which was helpful Important!!! You do not need to remove the shifter receiver tube or remove the steering column to do these repairs!!! Replacing the shifter receiver tube bushings and tightening the torx screws on the end of the shifter receiver tube can be done with everything in the truck. This video just shows and explains everything very well because the steering column is out of the vehicle and on the workbench and, therefore, easy to see:





Update: Everything went as planned. The receiver tube bushings were not damaged, but I replaced them anyway. And I lubed them with ceramic brake caliper slide pin grease. Also, removing the shifter tube torx screws one at a time and reinstalling them with red maximum strength thread locker went fine.

The only thing I didn't foresee but easily fixed was that the P R N D 2 1 indicator was off. I adjusted it appropriately with the little black thumb wheel and because the little white "locking" tab wouldn't stay up to lock the little black thumb wheel, I installed a zipped tie below it to keep it up to lock the wheel in place.

Result: No more slop in the transmission shifter. Very positive dropping into detent for each of the various P R N D 2 1 positions.