Gear selector from hell!

[OldGuy]

Greetings everyone. I have an interesting issue which I have not found a complete answer for, even after several searches on the site. I have found a bit of this and a bit of that but not my entire issue.

Here goes...1971 F-100, 2wd, 360 Fe, C6 transmission.

I had a similar issue to another member where my gear slector would drop easily out of park. This issue recently cost me a rear bumper when it slipped out on its own!

I took the truck to a tranny shop and they found that the gear selector was not going far enough up to drop into park. They disconnected the arm at the base of the steering column (in the engine compartment), which connects to the tranny gear arm. Once they disconnected it the gear selector moved all the way into park, locking in VERY securely. They then adjusted the connection on the end of the tranny rod to line up with the arm at the base of the steering column. Problem solved?

Nope, now the truck would not start! So we adjusted the neutral switch on the top of the steering column (inside the cab). Still nothing. However, if we put it into neutral it would start, then I could put it back into Park to warm up. (prior to making any adjustments it would start in Park no problem). In addition I was told that my reverse lights are now always on no matter which gear the selector is in. There is no reverse switch on the tranny just the neutral switch.

So....I ordered a new neutral switch thinking it was pooched and installed it this morning. Same issue, same result. The truck will only start in neutral. Reverse lights still on in all gears. Something is not lining up right!

Otherwise, all gears work fine, shifts fine etc.

I was wondering if the adjustment at the base of the steering column should also be accompanied by an adjustment at the tranny ?

Your thoughts are appreciated!!

[warponyxlt]

hold your key in the start position and move the neutral switch back an fourth and where the selector sits in park chech if the shifter tube in the colum is oiled they need that cause they do break check if the caatch is worn out.

[fordman]

you did everything right. but the adjustment on the switch could be wrong because of the wear and play these old trucks get. it needs to be adjusted more. if its out of adjustment then the rod on the trans can be readjusted to give more slack back to a little more slop.then you should gain more nss adjustment. also if the cab mounts are rotted and collasped in a little bit that will trhow off all of those adjustments. fixing them or bring the cab height back up would also fix that.

[OldGuy]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I was thinking that I would open the ends of the slots on the switch to get a bit more adjustment and see if that works.

Not sure how I would oil the shift tube?

I'm not concerned about the "Park" catch. Now that it has been adjusted it is locked in securley in Park (a monkey could swing from it and it won't move!) so I don't think it is worn out.

I am guessing that whoever had the truck before me struggled with this problem and their solution was to adjust the travel of the gear selector to line up with the switch, rather than adjust the switch with the selector. Not a safe solution however as it left a "false" Park that sort of felt OK but really wasn't locking in properly.

Thanks again!

[warponyxlt]

yeah my truck was like that when i got it except that when I turned the wheel sharply to the right it came out of park in to reverse running or not that is scary

[fordman]

the shift rods for the automatic only have an adjustment on one end. it sounds like you have the dentside era shift rod with the adjustable slot on the bottom. you can try readjusting that to get the travel and swithc to line up yes as long as there are no other problems.

[cdherman]

When there is a lot of sloppiness in the linkages, you may be only able to get it correctly adjusted on "one" end. Meaning, you may be able to park right, but then it won't go into 1 at the bottom.

If you currently are happy with PRND21, then don't mess with the linkage. I have a pretty sloppy column that I realized so "off" that the neutral and Park switches could no longer be correctly adjusted. Elongating the slots in the switch also was not an option. I ended up drilling a couple new holes in the column (the switch has two screws, each of which runs in a slot).

Now, I am uncertain how hard it is to drill those new holes under the dash -- I had the hole thing on the bench and was lucky enough to check the swtich before I installed it all It was easy on the bench.....