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Harlock's avatar
Harlock
Explorer
Mar 30, 2015

2000 F250 will not shift into park

Has anyone else had the shift lever get a bit slack on them and won't go all the way over to park?

We have another 250 of the same era in pieces in the shop and I was looking at the column, there is a pin that engages the shift lever to the column and it might have worn a hole into a slot, or it's wear somewhere down the line to where the little teeth are that hold the column in each gear. Anyhow I thought I'd ask before really getting into things to avoid dead ends. I'm guessing this is a common problem. The truck only has 140K miles on it so it's an early wear item it seems.

5 Replies

  • Had some slop in my 2000 F350 last week and found those bolts REALLY loose. Easy fix less than one minute with correct tools and a mirror.
  • So the latter two posters were correct, that was the problem. I found helpful photos on the ford-trucks.com forums and fixed it in about 20 minutes. I cleaned and put low strength loc-tite on the bolts as should have been done in the first place. I'm glad this fix did not require any dissasembly of the column.
  • yeah. Tighten those torx bolts sooner rather than later. I watched my F250 roll in neutral across the street as I turned from my mailbox to go back to the truck
  • There are a couple bolts on the end of the column that connects the shift cable to the shift tube. They are a #30 Torx head. When they come loose you get this symptom.
  • Harlock wrote:
    Has anyone else had the shift lever get a bit slack on them and won't go all the way over to park?

    We have another 250 of the same era in pieces in the shop and I was looking at the column, there is a pin that engages the shift lever to the column and it might have worn a hole into a slot, or it's wear somewhere down the line to where the little teeth are that hold the column in each gear. Anyhow I thought I'd ask before really getting into things to avoid dead ends. I'm guessing this is a common problem. The truck only has 140K miles on it so it's an early wear item it seems.


    There is an adjustment in the steering column. Had my 2001 repaired at the dealer. Very common problem. I know it's not much help.

    If you are member at Ford-Trucks.com I'm sure you'll get the correct info there.

    S