My son just brought his 00 Ranger over. The shift indicator suddenly is out of wack. He claims that he has not had any problems with the tranny, nor has he heard anything different.

Any ideas as to why the indicator would suddenly be off?

Thanks

 

If you are talking about the indicator in the instrument cluster, then its completely independent of the actual position of the transmission. There is a cable/spring combo that controls what you see. It can bind, or the spring can break. Does that sound like what you are seeing?

 

It's also adjustable.

 

The gear shift lever on my '99 Ranger decided to do this during the summer. The lever will not allow me to put the selector into L1 and Park is located nearer to Reverse.

Anyway, I have not persued fixing it yet. Is this usually just an adjustment or could this turn out to be a major operation?

Just curious if anyone else has had to wrestle this gremlin.

 

I'm having this problem now - it was actually pointed out to me by a Ford Service Tech when in for other service. I believe they quoted me around $150 to repair. The comment made is that if it fails, it will mean that you can't move the transmission in or out of gear, which could strand you. I think that it's always been a bit "sticky" since I bought it new, but I don't drive the truck too much, so I'm not totally sure. However, when backing up yesterday, the selector wouldn't let me get it into reverse. I had to roll forward a bit in Neutral, then I tried to put it into Reverse again, and it worked. I figure that I'll take it into the shop next week unless someone here can speculate on how difficult a job it is to do it on your own. I don't need to drive it daily, so I have the time to do it. The issue for me is if it requires the removal of the airbag, then it might be more than I want to tackle.

 

Theres actually 2 issues going on, there is an sdjustable spring behind the dash, i did it, its a pain taking the dash apart but not terrible, and the other issue is the actual selector on the side of the transmission rusts and binds up, but to the op its sounds like its just the adjuster behind the dash, youll see how to adjust it once you open it up

 

I had a similar problem on my y2k 3.0 ranger in that it wouldn't come out of park easily and when I got it into drive I would then have to nudge it a bit to finally get it to shift into high gear. It turned out to be the neutral safety switch which I believe cost around $200 at an indy shop.

 

Thanks for the input folks. I had the Ranger in the shop as all the idiot lights started coming on the dash and the battery charge was running south, so on Christmas Eve, I had to pay to have the alternator replaced. If I wasn't relying on the truck at the time, I would have done that job myself and saved a ton ($495 installed at Ford). After that, I thought I'd get a service manual and take stabs at doing some of the work myself if the job was aligned with my skill sets.

bluedevil - sounds like a doable activity. I'm reasonably mechanical (e/g I've pulled the steering wheel and replaced the ignition switch, replaced timing chain, motor mounts, retracting antennas, etc.). Given my examples, would you know what I should expect it would take to do?

rangergolfer - given the pricetag and assuming repairs are similar, looks like the pricing is on parr. Thanks for the figure.

 

OK, so I got up behind the dashboard/steering column and was able to put some lithium grease on the moving parts of the transmission gear selector (including the cable). This improved things for a bit, but then it started getting worse again. I took apart the upper and lower covers behind the steering wheel and lubed the cylinder and moving parts of the gear selector there. It's moving better again, but I still don't have high confidence. And for good measure, I lubed the cable and moving parts on the selector on the side of the transmission. A little better, but not much. Any other suggestions before replacing?

Kevin

 

Rackster, is the problem that it is hard to move the shift lever? If you have lubed all the exposed mechanism, and it is not the brake pedal lockout solenoid & mechanism, then the only two things left are the cable and the valve body. I don't own one that new, or with an auto, but had a elderly friend of my wife who had a Honda Accord that was difficult to get out of Park. I lubed everything, to no avail. Talked to a tech, and he said the shifter cable would get worn, and make it hard to shift.
If you can, try disconnecting the cable and working lube in from one or both ends. It may free up with some exercise and lubrication.
tom

 

Tom,

It might be worth a shot. All the exposed areas I've lubed looked pretty good. The brake lockout seems to be working fine to, so it could be the cable within the plastic jacket. I'll try WD40 at the top of the line to see if it will work it's way down.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll let you know how it works out.

Kevin

 

First off, thank you to everyone who offered input on this. It looks like Bluedevil was right: the switch/lever on the transmission was binding due to corrosion. I was lubing everything I could see, spraying WD40 on anything rusty, but it only delayed the need to repair. A couple close calls with me not being able to put the truck into Reverse without some coercing. And, it wasn't starting a couple of times because the switch/lever wasn't allowing the transmission to get into Park. The original quote was for the cable, which in my case was fine (it looked it to, but it's anyones guess behind the insulated jacket). To replace the switch/lever on the tranny, $375.

Now, it moves from position-to-position like greased lightning (and it could be, because I lubed everything). One last point to add: my selector was always stiff feeling, but it worsened over time. I suspect it might have been slightly defective all along, but it worked fine for almost 94K miles. The last 2K were scary from time-to-time. Not worth the risk of getting stuck though.

Thanks again to all who took a moment to help troubleshoot this thing!!

 

I was pretty lucky in that dept. When I bought my truck new, I bought a HO 200 amp alternator to replace the stock. I never got around to exchanging the stock alternator. Around 100,000 miles the stock alternator stopped working. I pulled the HO off the shelf and swapped it out. Easy peasy

 

Greeny - sounds like you found a twenty in an old coat pocket!!