Hoping someone here might be able to help with this. This is what my buddy told me is happening to his car:

"I can start the car and it sounds normal. When I put my foot on the brake and move the shifter, it slides back and forth and does not change gears. Also there is no resistance attempting to change from Park to any other setting."


Any clues as to what it might be? Does anyone know of any Ford sites I might be able to post this question on as well??

Thanks,

Tony

 

Is the shifter linkage intact?

I'm assuming that the car drove normally before he parked it.

www.corral.net is for mustangs, but they might take a stab at it.

 

Not sure about the shifter linkage. He pretty much drove it to work and parked it and wouldn't do anything after that!

I found a Taurus Sho forum (http://www.shoforum.com) and told him to do a post there. I was reading through some of the post's, and it appears there are ALOT of tranny issues with that car... :

Thanks for the response and the link!

Tony

 

My wife has a 2000 Taurus. The other day she had a problem with the car not going into gear. I mean you had to literally force it out of park. Tried all the tricks - making sure brake pedal engaged, turning steering wheel, turning ignition key one notch and then putting into neutral to start. Nothing worked very good, so she took it to the Ford house and they said the linkage needed greasing, inside the cable. That worked like a charm, and now it shifts easily. Cose $15.

Your problem appears to be with the linkage also. Maybe something is loose or not catching properly.

 

Linkage, had a 86' daytona turbo charger and i broke the linkage, did exactly what your describing...

 

I have relayed the information to him. I appreciate the quick responses. He ordered the service manual and it is due to arrive tomorrow. We're going to check it out then! Thanks again!


Tony

 

Aside form the obvious,,only thing that comes to mind is fluid level,,,seems simple but is a perfect description of a low level.

 

Depending on the year the linkage has come off the MLP switch. Look on top of the tranny (drivers side) and ask him to move from Park to Drive. You should see the linkage move. The shaft that holds this linkage goes through the tranny so DON'T break it. Or the cable has broken. Or it has come off the shifter in the car. SHO Taurus' eat trannys all the time......and around 200k they start to burn oil also.

 

and a broken shifter cable it is.... should be fixed tomorrow when the Ford dealer opens... thanks again for all the responses guys! ;D


Tony


ohhh yeah... it's probably good that it happened because when I crawled under there, I noticed his tranny had a little leak and the fluid was pretty black... now it's at my buddies getting a full service... ;D

 

Flush the cooler. DON'T bust that nut for the MLP!!!!! Good Luck.