Help.. explorer auto tranny STUCK in drive

[ictsean]

ok guys,... here is my semi-emergency dilemma (sp?)... My son has recently bought a 2000 sport 4wd (not AWD). It had recently had a "new" transfer case installed. ok enough of the background. yesterday my son got home, drove up in the driveway and went to put his truck in park, but the gear selector lever would not budge.. it would not move out of drive. so he shut it off and walked away.. I got to look at it today.. and sure enough.. it wont move.. I step on the brake pedal.. nothing.. I crawled under the dash and looked at the shift linkage.. cable seemed to be trying to move.. I crawled under the truck and had him move the lever.. the cable housing was moving ever so slightly and the cable inside it seemed to be trying to move, but the arm on the tranny wasn't budging.. I tried to push and pull on the arm by hand and it wouldn't budge either. I have no experience with this truck and this type of tranny.. so I dont have a clue about why it might be stuck.. I noticed that there is a box on the tranny that a wire harness plugs into right there at the selector arm.. what is this.. and what things do I need to do to resolve this situation?

 

[MountaineerGreen]

Is it by chance a steep driveway?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! That box is the DTRS, but that's only a shift select range sensor. If you go underneath, you could disconnect the linkage, and manually put it back into park. If it moves freely, it will tell you that the problem is not in the transmission, but in the cable. If it goes into park, and then it won't come out, then it could be the shift lock mechanism. Do you see your brake lights turn on when you hit the brake?

 

[ictsean]

ok to answer the first question.. no it is on a flat driveway..
to answer the oter questions.. I dont know about the brake lights... what would that tell me? also.. how is the cable removed from the link arm? I didn't have alot of time tonight to look it over and will take another look at it tomorrow nite.

 

[BrooklynBay]

The brake lights are on the same circuit as the interlock solenoid. The linkage gets disconnected on the same side as that box (the DTRS) you saw previously.

 

[ictsean]

so does that box.. the dtrs.. contain that lockout solenoid?

 

[BrooklynBay]

No, it's in the column. It's designed to lock when you put it in park, then release when you step on the brake. Maybe it got jammed somehow. You might find # 19 in my list of useful threads helpful.