Jumps into Drive from Park

[markusm]

I have a first generation assembled Explorer with parts from '91 thru '94. Over the weekend I was letting the engine warm up in the driveway (with transmission in PARK) prior to running some SeaFoam through the throttle body. With the hood up I was leaning into the engine compartment from the drivers side tidkling the throttle by hand when suddenly the vehicle went into DRIVE on its own and crashed into my garage. Luckily I was not hurt and relatively little damage was done. Now the transmission is in forward DRIVE no matter what position the shift lever is in. The shift lever feels "right" with all detents, etc. but there's no PARK, REVERSE, NEUTRAL, only DRIVE. What could have spontaneously broken to cause this?

 

[arco777]

First check the shift cable which runs from the column to the transmission. There is a ball stud at one point which sometimes snaps off or the cable pops off of. Check that the shifter is working the linkage all the way to the shift arm on the transmission. Check the shift arm on the transmission itself. You should be able to manually select gears with it. If this doesn't work, your Z-link may have popped out of place or broken. This will require removal of the transmission fluid pan, which is easy but can be messy if you're not careful. Once that's out you should have access to the z-link, which connects the shift arm to the shift valve in the valve body. It will make sense once you take it apart, if you have to go that far.

 

[FR-425]

Shift cable. Or

Crawl under and see if you can shift by hand to get it out of drive.

If not the z-link may have bent or broken; Have a look at this thread, good pics.

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=155599

 

[FR-425]

LOL! we posted at the same time;

Is there an Echo in here? here? hre? hr? r?

 

[markusm]

Thanks to both of you for the starting point. If it's not snowing tonight I'll check the linkage and try to shift it by hand. The link to the pics is helpful.