1998 taurus gear selector problem

[wrtalaga]

My 1998 taurus was was acting fine. Got in it drove to friends house, went to put it in park and trans would not go in park, but shift indicator indicated it was. Shut off car and when tried to start again would not unless moved to drive position. seems it will "click" in drive ranges but moves freely through N R P Trans will move car in drive and reverse, but gear selector does not line up with gear indicators. Shift cable is not broke but not line up in right positions. Also found fine threaded torx screw on drive side floor. Any Clues what to check

[serge_saati]

Your Taurus has the gear lever in the steering column or in the center console?
It seems that your shift lever cable is not installed properly so the Transmission Range Sensor (TRS) is not synchronized with it. Put lever in Neutral (line it) and check if TRS metal contact is on the alignment mark of the TRS. If not, remove the white clip, align the TRS switch and put back the clip.

If it's too hard to stay on neutral (since it moves freely), put gear in park, remove clip, and fully pull the TRS metal lever to you and place back the clip.

The white clip can be inserted in 2 places, choose the right place. Your car has been serviced recently before this problem occurs?

[wrtalaga]

It is a column shifter, on the end of the shifter column, it connects, with 2 screws to a bracket that connects to the cable, seems the screw I found was 1 of these. The second one was still in place and let the selector work partially. Once I put the second one back in place the selector worked properly. Thanks very much for your reply, I really appreciate it. Next time maybe I should look a little bit harder before I post. LOL

[serge_saati]

Glad that you fix it.