Reverse is Reverse, Drive is Neutral, 1st is Drive

[dunbar26]

Alright I've got a really strange issue going on in a 2006 Explorer 4.0 with advance trac. This all started yesterday my GF calls me after work and says she's at the laundry mat and the explorer won't shift out of park. I know the parking lot where she is at is at a large incline and know the truck is a little tougher to shift out of park on an incline.

She tells me it won't shift at all and the button is working and the gear selector almost gets to R and then won't move anymore. I just tell her to sit tight and I'll be there soon. I hop on the train and start googling similar issues. I find the shifter interlock as a common issue and when I get to her try that immediately. Ended up couldn't find the emergency release so I scraped that idea. I got out of the truck and pushed it forward as far as I could while she shifted into reverse to try and get the weight off the transaxle from being parking on an incline. As soon as we tried that the truck shifted into R no problem.

We hop in the car and back out of the spot. Comes to stop and tries shifting to D. Nothing. The truck is acting like it is neutral. I tell her to drop it to 1st then go back to D. That works. Ended up in Drive and drove home went through all the gears no problem. We get home and test it again in the drive way. Reverse works but D is neutral still and had to drop it to 1 and then back to D to get forward gears.

Now I honestly have no idea why D is gone when shifting out of park. She told me she was trying to pull back on the gear selector as hard as she could so I was thinking some cable or rod or linkage got stretched out of stripped from her yanking on it so hard. But I have no idea if this thing even has anything like that its just the only thing I could think of that made sense without examining it in detail and I won't be able to took at in in the light until tomorrow.

Does anyone have any idea what could be the issue here?

 

[steve6534]

Alright I've got a really strange issue going on in a 2006 Explorer 4.0 with advance trac. This all started yesterday my GF calls me after work and says she's at the laundry mat and the explorer won't shift out of park. I know the parking lot where she is at is at a large incline and know the truck is a little tougher to shift out of park on an incline.

She tells me it won't shift at all and the button is working and the gear selector almost gets to R and then won't move anymore. I just tell her to sit tight and I'll be there soon. I hop on the train and start googling similar issues. I find the shifter interlock as a common issue and when I get to her try that immediately. Ended up couldn't find the emergency release so I scraped that idea. I got out of the truck and pushed it forward as far as I could while she shifted into reverse to try and get the weight off the transaxle from being parking on an incline. As soon as we tried that the truck shifted into R no problem.

We hop in the car and back out of the spot. Comes to stop and tries shifting to D. Nothing. The truck is acting like it is neutral. I tell her to drop it to 1st then go back to D. That works. Ended up in Drive and drove home went through all the gears no problem. We get home and test it again in the drive way. Reverse works but D is neutral still and had to drop it to 1 and then back to D to get forward gears.

Now I honestly have no idea why D is gone when shifting out of park. She told me she was trying to pull back on the gear selector as hard as she could so I was thinking some cable or rod or linkage got stretched out of stripped from her yanking on it so hard. But I have no idea if this thing even has anything like that its just the only thing I could think of that made sense without examining it in detail and I won't be able to took at in in the light until tomorrow.

Does anyone have any idea what could be the issue here?

It sure sounds like the cable got stretched while trying to move the shifter. I would try to set the parking brake, chock the wheels, and verify that the shifter link on the transmission is moving smoothly while someone else moves the shifter inside the truck. My guess is that it's only moving a fraction of the amount that it should be.

 

[Tech By Trade]

the shifter solenoid froze (common problem) and the excess force on the cable from reefing it either bent something or stretched the cable. Start pullin the console apart.
P.S. when the solenoid freezes there is a hole under the drink holder you jam a screwdriver in to get it out of park. Instructions are in the owners manual.