Steering Column Repair: Gear shifting, steering column, mercury sable, sable wagon

Question
Hi, Doug,
I have 1992 Mercury Sable wagon. The problems I have are: 1. I shifted in P, the car would move with slope. 2. Sometimes It would not start. But I shifted in N, it started. 3. The shift pointer does not point to exactly P,N or D.

Is it easy for me to fix it myself?

Thanks,

Irving

Answer

ford shifter problem Hi Irving:

This is a very common problem on the Ford column shift vehicles.  Most likely, this is what you need to do....

The bolts holding the shift bracket and spring to the shift tube come loose creating too much free movement for the shift action to be effective.  This is a simple repair.  Simply lay on the floor looking up under the dash, locate the shift cable still attached to the bracket at the bottom of the steering column (often 1 bolt may have fallen out and one bolt will still be in place) and reinstall the bolt that fell out tightening both securely.  These are gold colored 30 torx head bolts that go in from the bottom-up.   I am enclosing a picture pointing to the shift tube I am referring to.
Once re-installed and tight, you should get all of the functions back again and the indicator should realign itself.

Good luck

Doug