Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Troubleshooting Sheared Bolt On Shift Mechanism On Trans X

I had a problem this weekend with my car not going into gear. I could put it in first and slide it to 5th without it trying to cath the gate on any gear. Had it towed away to the dealer today (under Fidelity warranty) and the dealer assesed it as a bolt that broke on the shifter mechanism where the rods connect to the trans axle. Supposely this bolt is inside my tranny and they have to R and R the tranny to remove it. I just had the transmission replaced 14,000 miles ago (ford covers the new tranny for 12 months 12,000 miles, how convenient). Fidelity is saying the have to send an adjuster to prove it was not abuse before they will cover it. How can the throw of the shifter break it's own bolt on the transmission? Anyone have an exploded diagram of the transaxle and shifter assembely?? TERRY - Have any thoughts of how I can get this covered? Thx!

Use the following function sparingly, and only in cases of emergency:

************************************************
Public Function funcLameExcuse()

Dim aFavFemale
Dim aFavPlace
Dim i
Dim x

aFavFemale = Array("Wife", "Mother", _
"Grandmother", "Aunt", "Sister")

aFavPlace = Array("Church", "Bingo", _
"Hometown Buffet")

Randomize
i = Int((UBound(aFavFemale) + 1) * Rnd)
x = Int((UBound(aFavPlace) + 1) * Rnd)

MsgBox "This is my " & aFavFemale(i) & "." & _
" She was on her way to " & aFavPlace(x) & _
" when the transmission just stopped working" & _
", and stranded her in front of a biker bar!"

End Function
************************************************

(Be sure to bring a women resembling aFavFemale(i), or things could get embarrassing!)

OH MAN I MUST BE BORED!!!!

If you can prove it was their negligence...you have a chance. Good luck.

Oh Boy...Thanx for everybody's help....This is how im reminded that I don't post here anymore.

This happens a lot,in most cases the bolt head exits via the gear case..!!!!I suggest fitting the 2000+ shifter tower (as I have been for months!!!) BEFORE this happens..to be honest, with optics etc I have been able to extract a bolt head but its a PIA,if the gears get jammed NEVER move the car or once the crown wheel moves that bolt head will exit via the castings...!!!

that wasn't very nice. i spent 30min out of my day to write you a fully functional program that should provide hours of enjoyment. (just copy and paste the code into a ".vbs" file, call the function using "funcLameExcuse" at the top of the file, and let the fun begin.)

you can't expect everyone who reads the post (except terry) to have the answer.

i try not to worry to much about warranties, recalls, mileage, or any of that crap anymore. ford dealers always end up charging me one way or the other on their screw-ups, design defects, and stuff I can?t fix myself. trying to pursue reimbursement ends up costing me more than just dropping it off, verifying they fixed the problem, and giving them money.

Terry-after your previous discussion re changeing the shift tower to fix the 1st/reverse problem I went to my local svt dealer and came up with the following part #'s:tower assembly-#xs4z7201db,backup switch#sw5523,jumper#ys7z15525ba.Are these the correct #'s to fix this problem? Thanks in advance. Alex[and all others with this problem]

If the jumper is for that tower they look like the correct #'s,but dont forget the internals have also been changed re selector forks,the tower helps the shifting but mainly for the 'lost bolt head' problem!!!

Thanks Terry. Alex

That's exactly what I needed. Thx Terry and Alex!!