Rolling In Park

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Ned Blaum

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Location
Hanover Twp., PA
Has anyone ever had this problem? Today I parked on a slight incline, put my truck in park and when I went to get out it started rolling. Tried it again when I got home and the same thing happened. Since I was in my driveway I was experimenting and as I let it roll a little I heard a gear clicking kind of sound. Someone said it could be the "park pawl"? I did some researching and couldn't find much on it. Any ideas?
 
The park pin / pawl is basically a spring loaded shaft that will engage into one of many grooves to hold the vehicle in park. If you happen to put it into park and it is not in one of the groves, once the vehicle moves a SMALL amount it "should" snap into place. I am talking like inches, not much movement is needed.



You could have a sheered pin, weak spring, or be out of adjustment, (meaning the shifter itself).



The pin is designed this way so that, if you were to shove it into park while going fast, it simply clicks and will not engage until the speed is slow enough to allow it to go into the grove and stop the vehicle and NOT break anything in the process...
 
Thanks joe. In the driveway it moved about six inches or so and thats when I heard the gear clicking sound and it must have snapped into place.

So is this park pin/pawl part of the transmisson?

Is this a big job? I won't go back to the dealer!

My trans. went at 24,000 and the dealer said Ford would'nt replace it, only pay to rebuild it.

It's a 2001 only has 62,000 so I'm way out of warranty on that.

Thanks for your help.
 
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It is internal to the transmission but in most cases, accessible with somewhat minimal work.



Most cases, drop the pan and in some case remove the valve body (but not it all cases).



Sounds like it sheered off or the spring broke or is weak.



Check with a local tranny shop and ask them a price to look at it and if it is the issue how much to repair/replace it?
 
FYI,

This repair does NOT require any type of tranny rebuild. Requires no bands or gears or anything like that to be removed.



I say this as I have NEVER seen a tranny you could not get to the park pin with anything more than minimal tear down and effort...
 
On a 4x2 inspecting/changing the pawl and/or spring is super simple. On a 4x4 it will involve dropping the transfer case. I had to replace a broken tail housing, which is where the pawl is located, and snapped these photos while it was apart. As said, this is a 4x2 but I think it illustrates the point.

1b8d81e735ad01256ca025ab4badb872.jpg




24c4f34f6bc11593134e4275e543d9f9.jpg
 
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On the back of the steering colum there is a bracket that holds the shift cable. It is very common for one of the bolts to come loose, or even fall out, and cause the transmission to not be placed all the way in park due to the slack in the shift cable. Before you go tearing into the trans have this checked, like I said it is very common.
 
Thanks L1TECH, I was just going to post another problem I'm having. Every now and then it won't start in park. Someone told me this morning that both problems together would more than likely be the trans. shift cable. So I will have that checked first.

If that's the problem, great! If not, it's off to the tranny shop.

Thanks to all you guys for your great responses !
 
Yep, that is another sympton of the loose or missing bolt. Another sympton is not being able to pull the shifter all the way down into low.
 
Ok, before going to a tranny shop, I stopped by the local garage today where we take my wife's car for service. As I started explaining my problem he told me it was the "shift cable". He said this is a very common problem with Fords. He stopped what he was doing, grabbed a socket wrench, and crawled under the dash and reached up into the steering collum, tightened it up and said your done! Told me to go try it out. Once I pulled out I could feel the difference in the shifter. No more play between gears. Goes right into park and no more rolling. And...he didn't even charge me!:grin:

Thanks again guys for all your help!

I owe y'all a beer!:haveabeer:
 
I've seen several references around to people finding a bolt in the floor, having fallen out of, I think, the shift lever. Some on here I think.
 

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