Stuck in gear

[tommyhawk13]

My friend's 92 Explorer 2WD Was stolen the other day. We found it abandoned on the side of the road with an almost empty tank of gas and over 500 miles added to the odometer a couple of days later.
It will not start with the key.
There is no damage to the column, no broken wires, or anything else to indicate that it was "hotwired".
She just got it out of the shop 2 days before it was stolen, and we think someone at the garage copied the key. The owner of the garage is her grandfather, so it's likely they knew where she worked.

After starting the truck by jumping the starter relay with a screwdriver, we determined that the neutral safety switch might be the culprit for not starting. I put the truck in reverse, and it moved forward slowly, but under half throttle. It dod this in every gear including park. It will roll when we push it in neutral, but it stays put in park. The linkge appears intact.
We have not been able to access any codes yet, but we think they must have driven the truck so hard that they ruined the transmission.
Any thoughts?

 

[toy720]

Not sure of the 92 but i have a 95 model and if the dtr is messed up it will cause the symptoms i think in 92 they called it the mlps but not for sure if it serves the same purpose if so that could be your problem (its the sensor that the selector linkage hooks to on the side of the tranny?

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! The neutral safety switch is only a safety switch to prevent you from starting the truck in any other setting other than neutral, or park. If you put it in drive, and jumped the starter solenoid, the truck will jump when the starter is engaged, and will start the engine. I know this for a fact (the hard way)! Don't attempt to do this! Maybe there is an ignition/starter kill that is from an alarm system preventing it from starting.

 

[toy720]

i DONT KNOW IF THE MLPS IS THE SAME AS THE DTR AS ON THE 95 AND UP BUT I KNOW WHEN I WAS HAVING SOME TRANNY ISSUES I REPLACED DTR AND LOW AND BEHOLD IT WOULD START WITH THE KEY (I WOULD HAVE TO SLAVE IT OVER AT THE RELAY AS WELL).BEFORE REPLACING IT AND REBUILDING TRANNY?

 

[BrooklynBay]

The DTR is adjustable. The neutral safety switch screws in. Here is a picture of it: