newb here to forum but not to explorers

[forace07]

I just bought my 7th explorer, a 2007 XLT 4.0 4x4 with 30,200 milesw on it and need help.
The button on the shifter that you push to go in and out of O/D is gone. I took a paper clip and pushed and it works. Went to stealership and they told me they would have to replace switch and also take out console and feed new cable to tranny. Can I not just find a button at junkyard rather than buy whole switch and maybe pop it in?? Why would this be gone anyway? Do I really need this? I have trucks for towing so I will never use to tow. Just need some advice and opinions.
Thanks in advance for any help with this.

 

[TexasArmadillo]

I imagin there is a good story for why it is not there. Not sure about you neck of the woods, but late model Explorers are hard to find here. If your paper clip trick works I'd say just find a spring button to fix the problem. The stealership is probably quoting u the whole harness assembly since that is the way they get it.

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[EX-SV]

The OD switches might be junk, mine quit working out at under 50K miles with little use.

 

[forace07]

Actually the switch would cost me $20.84 but labor was going to be $150 to $175.00 labor to replace the switch. Since I don't pull a trailer with it( I have trucks for that) do I even need the button fixed? I can use pin to turn it on if needed but probably will never need it. What ya think??

 

[sport97]

Generally you won't need to turn o/d off. Only time I do is if I am driving mountain roads and get tired of it shifting in and out of o/d.

 

[Davidm53]

On my 06 Explorer, the OD button was missing also, seemed odd that it was gone.
That was one of the items fixed from the dealership before I paid for it.
They said the shifter would have to be removed to fix it.
The paper clip trick did work also.

 

[granadojl]

Oddly enough my '06 has the O/D button, but it only works when I shift the gear selector into 1/2/ or 3rd gear. When I shift into Drive.. the button stops working. I'm sure I just need to extent the wires inside the console and give it a little slack while I shift into all gears. Maybe I need to get my ACE into gear and fix this