Inaccurate Shift Inidicator? Here's the fix!

[exploration1997]

Does your shift indicator look like this?

Where the needle is in between two gears or displays the wrong gear? You may think this is a hard, time consuming fix, but it's actually quick and easy, you don't even need to take anything apart!

1. Make sure your Explorer/Ranger/Mountaineer is in a safe location, in park, and has enough room for the drivers door to stay open.
2. Take a flashlight and start looking under your driver's footwell. You will find something like this:

The adjusting wheel is what adjusts the shifter.
3. Twist it one way a few times. Look at your shift indicator to see what has happened. If it is closer to the P, keep spinning the adjusting wheel until it is in the center of P. If it's further away from P, you spun it the wrong way.

4. Test the solution by moving the shifter column down, one gear at a time, making sure each gear is displayed correctly.

*Note: The needle still may be slightly off center in reverse and neutral. In my Explorer, after I did this fix, it was perfectly on center in P, D, 2, and 1, but slightly off-center in R or N.

 

[1996BLKBauer]

Mine is not nearly as bad as that, but if I ever feel like squeezing my 270lb self under my dash, I might try this. Good, thread, thanks for posting it.

 

[drdoom]

Thanks!

 

[exploration1997]

Mine is not nearly as bad as that, but if I ever feel like squeezing my 270lb self under my dash, I might try this. Good, thread, thanks for posting it.

That actually wasn't my picture, But I'm assuming it was in drive, not park lol. But yeah, when I first drove it I thought the tranny died turns out when it said D I was really in neutral, so when it was in drive, it would really say it was in second.

 

[Cranmaro99]

Most of the time the screws that actually hold the shifter lever come loose behind the dash, actually. Always look into both.

 

[koda2000]

Most of the time the screws that actually hold the shifter lever come loose behind the dash, actually. Always look into both.

you may also find that the plastic bracket that holds the black adjuster wheel is broken. some have reported this can be fixed with a wire tie, or you can get a new cable with the bracket, pointer and thumb wheel and just swap out the bracket if you don't want to pull out your instrument cluster. if you do pull the cluster, i strongly suggest also you replace the six #194 gauge illumination bulbs while your in there.