98 Explorer shifting and battery drain issues. Linked?

[Frazil]

I have two problems on my 1998 Ford Explorer 5.0 V8, and I don’t know if they’re related in any way. Can anyone help me straighten out what’s going on.

First is the shifter that’s at issue. Starting off, the tranny was rebuilt 2 to 3 years ago. Also, I just went into the dash, and replaced the shifter bushings, and it doesn’t appear to have been that.

What my shifter is doing, is it doesn’t want to go into first gear at all, and has trouble going into second fully, and also has trouble sometimes going fully into park. So I have to use my parking brake, because sometimes it will slip in park. But it does seem to go OK into reverse, neutral, and drive. Is this a linkage issue of some sort, or is this something wrong with the transmission?

Of note, trying to go into first gear, it’s like it’s physically hitting hey stop in the shifter linkage up in the column. I am hoping to avoid taking it to a shop, but is this something a casual DIY mechanic can do?

The second problem I have is that a battery drain has showed up. It’s linked to fuse 25, and 26. When everything is off, it is draining at 0.2 Amps. But when I pull fuse 26, it drops to 0.06 Amps. On the other hand, if I pull fuse 25, it drops down to 0.01 Amps. With both fuses is pulled, it draws the same at 0.01 Amps. The alternator is fairly new, and I tried trading trading out my car battery with one from my other car that works great, and that does not seem to have been the issue. Any idea what this is? Do you think this relates to the shifter somehow?

 

[J_C]

I'm not a tranny guy but would suspect the linkage first. I do not know if having it out of park would keep the vehicle in a higher energy/drain state but see below.

The 0.2A (closer to 0.25A IIRC) drain is completely normal for the first 45 minutes or so after the last activity, even with the ignition off, until the battery saver circuit times out, then should drop to closer to 30mA. Many different activities can reset the battery saver timer to count down from 45 minutes again, for example the ignition, the door latches, or reconnecting the battery.

If the battery saver circuit does not seem to disengage after this point, then I would look at the battery saver and accessory delay relays as possible culprits. You could try switching those relays with others of the same type in the relay box. Sometimes just flicking them with your finger will get them working better for a while but that's hit or miss.

Unless someone else can tell us whether tranny out of park can keep it in a higher power state, I would tackle the tranny issue first then see if the high drain problem goes away, but of course not leaving the battery connected if it's draining it to a damaging low voltage.

I assume you are having some battery problem and this is why the parasitic drain was being checked? I mean it was not starting after sitting or something, then you measured low battery voltage, OR is it possible it would not start because of the tranny shift position?