I’ve heard this is a very common thing for Fords of this era, but I’ve yet to find a fix. Our 65 f100 has a 240 and auto trans, column shift. The column is factory original but I have reason to believe the trans is a c4 from the 70s. Lots of slop in the gear shift selector arm on the column, and you don’t need to pull the arm towards you before pulling it down. It’s not totally loosey goosey, it won’t just flop from one gear to the next if you look at it funny, however the other day while adjusting the carb I had the idle speed pretty low for just a second and she started bucking, and it was just enough to pop out of gear and into reverse. So where to begin? The slop all seems to be with the shift lever on the column. If I wiggle the linkage at the firewall that connects the column to the rod that goes down to the trans, there is no play at all, and same with where that arm connects down by the trans… no play there either. Any thoughts on how to fix this? I’d hate to run over a family member, especially on Father’s Day. That’d be a bummer.
I would first crawl under it and disconnect the linkage at the trans and see if I could manually put the lever into park without the linkage. The linkage might be adjusted wrong and not long enough to fully engage park.
There were a lot of lawsuits over this. Ford's contention was that people were not putting the lever firmly in the park position. It is actually supposed to lock in park. Their solution was a sticker that went on the dash telling you to be sure you put the lever firmly in the park position. With that said, the tube that the shift lever engages is probably worn. You need to pull the column and totally disassemble it. You should be able to see where the wear is. You will probably have to weld up the worn areas.
Yuppers it was an all too common issue with Fords back in that time frame. More than one Ford in those years rolled off after jumping out of park and got it's self in trouble. I'd agree with worn shifter column/linkage parts and being out of adjustment. I'd try popping the linkage off the shift arm on the side of the transmission, put the lever in park and rock the truck back and forth front/rear by hand to see if it does hold (flat floor) and then put the shifter in park and adjust the linkage so it fits right and see how that works. Worn motor mounts and or worn cab mounts may have contributed a bit.
the sticker said to use the parking brake....solid advice. You need to rebuild the column, or get a different shifter, or fix the damn parking brake. I'd do the column repair, and the parking brake thing. But you could get one of those crappy looking aftermarket shifters, if you really want to.
Replace the shift tube and collar. Make sure the rest of linkage doesn't have any play in it. Adjust it properly..... Problem solved. Oh yeah.... Apply the parking brake as a backup.
The problem is that the transmission is not getting into park to begin with, tighten up the linkage and ajust so the transmission gets into park.
Reminds me of when I was working as a petroleum engineer in the Poso Creek field office. Our foreman pulled up to the office and put his F150 in park walked into the office. The secretary told him to look out the window. He did in time to see his truck slowly back over the cliff on the office pad. Fords in the 60s thru 80s easily popped from park into reverse. Great Ridiculousness footage!!
Here's the problem I had with my 57 Ford. This isn't mine but the wear and damage are consistent with Ford column shifters. If you were handy with a welder and file it could be repairable if new or reproduction parts aren't available.
There were even more parts in the later shifters, that would wear out. And Ford didn't do GMs trick of having an extra blank space between Park and Reverse. Mopar also didn't have the extra space, but they made stuff better than Ford, so it wasn't a problem.
With the old Bear alignment racks, we drove the car on, got out and hit the pedals to raise the ramps to horizontal. I had one Ford wagon that popped out of park.. CLUNK. I had to dive out of the way because the door was open. The garage door frame stopped the car... any Fords past that, I always got someone to raise the ramps and put the parking brake on. They seldom popped out unless on an incline.
Back in the 70's we had trouble rigs with this setup. Go out at night on trouble call-leave truck run.shine spotllights up the pole and climb the pole to fix whatever problem. More than a few took off!! After that chock the wheels and jamb hard on the ebrake too.
Not sure on the C4 but the 62 cruise-o-matic I installed in my 56 doesn’t have a “detent” in the transmission for park. The column behind the steering wheel did the holding. I had to remove the wheel and turn signal controller and use small files to “square up” the worn parts from years of pulling it down from Park to Gear without moving the lever towards the steering wheel first. I still do not trust it and ALWAYS use the parking brake and many times just leave it in neutral.
From the reading I have been doing the C4 does not really stay in park on its own. There is a little hold the transmission provides but I am reading that most of the hold in park comes from the shifter. SO rebuilding the shifter detents and arm/lever making sure it is all up to snuff would help.
When I was under my car once I disconnected the link from the column to the trans arm. It was in neutral at the time one click up into reverse and 3 clicks down for the forward gears. From reverse up I could move it up until it stopped and it was in Park but felt spring loaded. When I let go if went directly into reverse where it stayed. I still don’t trust the lever notch behind the steering wheel.EVER..
The problem you described happens when the parking pawl inside the transmission ends up on one of the teeth on the park gear. The pawl is spring loaded so that if the car rolls forward or backward the pawl with engage the space between the park gear teeth. The locking mechanism is in the column.
Ford C-4’s are kinda funny about some things. I had a early Mustang that the transmission wasn’t shifting correctly. Asked the head mechanic at the local Ford dealership about it, if he had any suggestions. He offered to test drive it and see what he could do for me. Sure enough, he said it was the governor being sticky causing the problem. I asked him what I needed to do to fix it. He said let’s try to “Rattle” it. He tells me to hang on and not freak out as he accelerated to about 35-40 mph and then shoved the floor shifter into Park for a couple seconds and then back into Drive. He did it about 4 times, and I about had a heart attack! Then we stopped and drove it normal, shifted like new. He still laughs at me about it, wishes he had a video of my face when he did it!
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