Shift adjustment

[frank long island]

I'm having trouble with the shifter on my 64 ranchero 6 cyl auto when i start the car the trans drops from park to reverse is there a lock out in the column or on the trans tried adj. The arm from trans to shifter no luck i'm stumped

 

[rick55]

Every Ford shift I have seen has a little raised section on the detent plate which effectively holds the selector lever in park. This is at the shifter location, not on the box. You will probably find that on your car it is worn or sloppy and this allows the shifter to drop. The weight of the shifter on a column may be enough to cause it to drop out.
This is a picture off the Internet which shows a detent plate - don't know the application. The deep notch would be park and shows why you need to pull the lever back to change. There is a spring loaded pawl which needs to be retracted to move out of park.

Hope this helps
Regards

 

[parklane]

Not sure about the 6 cyl, but have had a few 8 cylinder cars jump from park into reverse. One in particular, we were doing a diagnostic check in our shop. Hooked up to analyser and running about 1500rpm for dynamic compression. All of a sudden, it jumped into reverse, and draged the scope with it as it backed through the closed shop door.

 

[Daves55Sedan]

The Ford-O-Matic in my '55 Courier does the same thing.
It all started when I had it parked on a sloped parking lot and the parking brake cable broke, which caused the entire weight of the car to rest against the park pawl inside the trans. I had to use force to get the gear select lever out of park position. Its never been the same since.

 

[Ole Don]

There was a recall on some of the auto gear box shifters back then. Mine was not included, but I did get in the habit of always useing the parking brake just in case.

 

[gregk]

I agree with Rick, the detent plate below the steering wheel gets worn out after many years of just hauling the shifter down out of park. The proper operation ,is you all know, is to pull the shifter towards the steering wheel then into gear.
i noticed this wear in my 54 Ranchwagon when I had the wheel off and was adapting the shifter lever to operate a C-6 (needed an extra gear position for low)
The metal was almost worn through and it was easy to understand where a little vibration or even the weight of the shifter could move the lever out of park especially if the spring is weak.
i welded up the worn areas and it seems to operate fine.