2003 Tarus automatic gear shift lever problem

I am working on a problem on my mom's Tarus.

The gear shift lever just goes up and down without changing gears . . . there is little resistance, almost like shifting a manual trans with the clutch pushed in . . . you don't feel it hit any gears.

Under the hood, on the driver's side, where I belive the cable from the gear shift lever hooks on to the shifter thing (what ever the technical name for it is), you can togle the lever by hand to shift in to reverse, park, etc.

When you do that, it will move the gear shift leaver inside the car when you move it one direction, but not the other.

To me, it looks like there is something broken between the gear shift lever and the module under the hood that controlls the transmision. Does this sound right, and if so, where should I go from here? If not, what do you think it could be?

Look at the bottom of the column where the shift cable bolts to the bracket. There are 2 little screws that hold the cable tight. If these are tight, you will need to lower the steering column and look to see if the shift tube is broken. This is a common failure on the Ford products.

I checked that stuff and none of it lined up. The screws were tight, and I could tell by holding the lever that connects to the cable and moving the gear shift lever that nothing in the column was broke.

I took the cable off the PRNDL switch, and pulled on it. About two feet of the he cable came right out of the sleave that covers the cable . . . it looked almost like the cable had been cut, probably by an electric arc before it was installed. My guess is that should fix the problem. :)

Good job. You will need to buy the entire cable to replace it. thanks for the feedback.

Just so the complete info is in this thread, the cable is a dealer part. I picked it up from a local ford dealer for about $45.

Thanks for the fix. All the regulars will appreciate it and it may help someone that is just looking.