1994 lincoln town car will not go in reverse

[jnate]

I got home from driving 350 freeway miles and the next day the car would not go in reverse.

I added a quart of transmission fluid and that did not help. I also noticed that the car was trying to downshift over 40mph.

What would be the least expensive repair. The car is not worth more than $2500........should I just by another one? Car has 140000 but has been well taken care of.

[Towncar]

Originally Posted by jnate

What would be the least expensive repair. The car is not worth more than $2500........should I just by another one? Car has 140000 but has been well taken care of.

Not so fast...

There's a possiblity that the linkage on either the steering column, or the transmission has worked loose or mis-aligned.

If you can't inspect these scanerio's yourself, you'll need to find a trusted resource that has nothing to gain by mis-leading you.

The linkage at the end of the Steering Column can be inspected lying on the floor of the drivers side, looking up under the dash. At or near the end of the column you can see the brackets that hold the shifter cable. These brackets sometimes need their fasteners re-torqued.

The linkage on the transmission is a bit more tricky as it requires adjustment if the mounting fasteners have worked loose.