Rake gear selector in order to engage gear

[PhilthyPhil]

Hey. I’m new to this forum and the 5th gen ford world entirely. I’ve been making small repairs to the truck I got a few months ago based pretty much on info found here, been great so far…. I have a ‘68 F250 with automatic transmission, 2WD.

The gear selector has to be pulled toward driver in order to turn the truck on.

Sometimes that won’t work, as well as the truck won’t go into gear (drive or reverse) unless I rake the gear selector up and down a few times. It’s not disabling and works fine after a few good rakes back and forth but I know this isn’t normal.

YouTube and scouring here hasn’t really left me with any clear cut answers. Anyone dealt with this?

[zgerbic]

Sounds like a lot of slop in the linkage. The neutral safety switch is in the column and requires an accurate positioning of the shift linkage to get the switch contacts closed. The linkage to the transmission may have a plastic bushing which has fallen out which then makes the selector sloppy in the transmission. I would put the transmission in park and then check how much slop is in the shift linkage at the point where it meets the transmission, and check to make sure a bushing is in place. Then I would work up to the column and check for slop up to the shift lever.

Another problem area to look at not completely specific to this problem is with the gate assembly in the column where the shift lever goes in. Two problems here. One is that if the gate is worn, the selections for gear may not be in the right place. Second is more critical. If the gate is worn/loose, the weight of the shifter lever when the truck is idling and has some vibration at the column, will allow the truck to slip into reverse and take off on its own. I have a write-up and pictures on this site covering how to fix this. http://fordification.com/forum/viewtopi ... 05#p770705

[PhilthyPhil]

That is incredibly helpful. I’ll get a good look at all this once I have some free time. Thanks for all that