Trans selector lever sloppy or no detents

[R23DRVR]

To All,

Just found your group from the Ford Truck Enthusiast site, have an Explorer question.

My wifes 2005 XLT 4.0 4x4 with auto trans was stolen and quickly recovered, wheels, tires and battery gone, passenger window broken. Went to pick it up at glass shop and found that the only detent in the selector movement was park. R was found by moving shift lever around indicated N, D was by moving lever beyond N towards 3. No detents for 3,2,1. The trans runs strong and shifts through all the gears in what is the "found" D position. So it appears that no damage to trans was suffered.

Glass shop stated that it is normal for vehicle recovery flat bed opertors to detach the trans cable at trans on 4x4s to prevent damage to drive train as they go to pull vehicle onboard, and that it is an easy reattach and then adjust to give selector operation correctly.

Another source said that the thief to defeat the "no key" selector lock would force the lever down to
R-N-D-3-2-1 positions breaking the lock and selector functions.

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome, thanking you in advance.

Fx

 

[jrford]

Glass shop stated that it is normal for vehicle recovery flat bed opertors to detach the trans cable at trans on 4x4s to prevent damage to drive train as they go to pull vehicle onboard, and that it is an easy reattach and then adjust to give selector operation correctly.

Another source said that the thief to defeat the "no key" selector lock would force the lever down to
R-N-D-3-2-1 positions breaking the lock and selector functions.

With mine, which was dead in the water, he didn't unhook anything, he just put it in 'N' and dragged it onto the flat bed. .

I might lean towards the second explanation. . .once you get it check the shifter out but i can't be sure as mine is a '04 with '5 on the tree'

 

[R23DRVR]

Got lucky, the glass shop was correct, trans shop did 1/2 hours work adjusting at trans and all is back to normal.

Glad I found this site as it gives a lot of interesting reading on other tech. areas. Now my wife has read the "telescoping" steering collum article, and guess what is on my "do list".

Fx