gear shift repaired but only moves between R and 3rd Gear

[2ndcovenant]

Hey folks,

So this past Thursday my 2002 Ford Explorer XLT 4x4's gear shift broke off. Thanks to the forums here I found a replacement part (Dorman 905-104) and I was able to put in the new part after following the instructions on page 8 of the Thread "Gear Shift Broke Off In Hands".

Part of the instructions mentioned in the Dorman how to video says that once the Gear Lever itself is in place but before locking the Dorman part in place, move the gear shift lever around to each of the gears and make certain that it can move into Park, Reverse, Neutral, Drive, 3, 2, and 1 freely; as needed.

The truck had been in Park but as soon as I took it out of Park to test it's movement, the gear lever would only go to Reverse, Neutral, Drive, and 3rd Gear. (In that order on the dash board). The only way that I can get it into Park or any of the other gears is to manually (by hand) move the slide bar behind the ignition switch into the gear that I need it in.

When I try to move the gear shift lever to Park or the other positions, it moves close to Park on the dash indicator but won't just simply hits a point where the lever won't budge any higher.

I am at a loss as to what to do. I don't understand what is going wrong. The truck parks fine when I manually put it into park so I am guessing that only the movement of the gear shift itself is bad but I don't know that for certain.

When placing the gear shift into the Dorman piece and using the locking pin to keep it in place, the part of the gear shift that goes "into" the steering column is fairly long from the point where the pin is placed. There is a cut out groove in the center of the column that I "think" the extended end of the gear shift goes into so I put that end into the groove and have been trying to move it from that position. Is that not correct?

----------------------------
Update:
1) I put the key into the ignition switch to see if that was why it would not go into park (in case it would only do so with the key in place) and now the key is locked in the ignition switch.

The Dorman part, a Steering Column Assembly, has a snap ring at the back end that still needs to be put in place but I am working in the dark right now (literally) with a flash light and the snap ring does not want to clip into place.

I just read on Amazon, where I bought the Dorman part, that the two copper sheathes that go at either end of the Steering Column Assembler's center piece can cause an issue with placing the snap ring in place "&" moving the gear shift into 3rd and 2nd gears; so I am wondering if that could be my issue *but* the two people who wrote those reviews did not say what they actually did to fix the problems.

2) A black electrical wire sitting on top of the steering column and whose other end goes directly into a hole in the gear shift itself, somehow was snapped when the gear shift part, that the Dorman part replaced, broke. I "think" that it goes to the O/D switch at the end of the gear shift level handle, which I never hand a use for anyhow. I hope that won't cause me a trouble.

Please, all help is appreciated. I need this truck to get to my new jobs.

 

[sickwilly]

So, you are in the sport trac area. There are likely some differences. You may need to post in the explorer area too.

When I replaced the shift bushing that hold my shift tube the first time I messed it up and could not shift it or get my key out. What I learned was that I had to have it shifted all the way to low 1 in order put the tube back in and have it work correctly. See if you can put it all the way in low 1 before you tighten it all down.

 

[96firephoenix]

So, you are in the sport trac area. There are likely some differences. You may need to post in the explorer area too.

When I replaced the shift bushing that hold my shift tube the first time I messed it up and could not shift it or get my key out. What I learned was that I had to have it shifted all the way to low 1 in order put the tube back in and have it work correctly. See if you can put it all the way in low 1 before you tighten it all down.

The ST and Sport(2-door SUV) models had different steering columns from the 4-door SUV. They have almost no parts in common in 02 except for the engine.

from the one time that I've had to do anything column shifter related on an automatic, this sounds familiar, that you had to have it all the way down in order to index something on the column.

2) A black electrical wire sitting on top of the steering column and whose other end goes directly into a hole in the gear shift itself, somehow was snapped when the gear shift part, that the Dorman part replaced, broke. I "think" that it goes to the O/D switch at the end of the gear shift level handle, which I never hand a use for anyhow. I hope that won't cause me a trouble..

That wire is definitely for the O/D off switch.

 

[2ndcovenant]

After trying to figure it out for a couple of days, I ended up taking it to a shop in Pooler Ga. It turns out that a part within the steering column had broken along with the original Steering Column Assembly. It may in fact have been the part within the steering column locking up (when it shouldn't have) that caused moving the gear shift to snap the Assembly. In any case, as many here have mentioned, if you buy the Steering Column Assembly yourself (I got mine from Amazon for less than $40 delivered next day) and take it to a shop, it should cost around $88. Someone in another thread said that was what they paid, so I found it funny when that was my cost too. So, long story short, if your gear shift breaks off and you have another vehicle for a couple of days, you may be best off taking it to a shop. The work was done in less than an hour although they were too busy to work on the truck on the first day.