That is kind of the way I am leaning because of the way it is acting. I'm going to do more troubleshooting this weekend to eliminate any possibility of it being in the shifer (in car) or cables.
I'm thinking it might be a shift lever problem at the transmission end. According to the weak drawings in the shop manual, it looks like there is some sort of an interface between the transmission internals and the external lever that the cables operate. If this is where the problem is, I wonder if this can be repaired/replaced w/o the huge PITA (and cost) of dropping the transmission from the car?
Either this or something in the shifter in the car. I thought of another test to eliminate this as a possibility. (Or prove that it is the problem. That would be nice, much cheaper!)
Does anyone know, if the gear selector mechanism (that's what the manual calls it) is removable w/o dropping the transmission?
BTW-
I had my wife stop at the dealer near where she works today to try and get the rubber bushings and retaining clips for the cable ends, and of course they told her they are not available as a seperate part. Gotta buy the whole shift cable assy. BS!!! Any Ford parts guys here who can help me here?
BTW2-
My wife told the service guy there what was going on and asked if the symptoms sounded familiar, perhaps he could give a guess as to what we are looking at.
He was sure he knew exactly what it was:
We need a throwout bearing, clutch pack, and pressure plate for about $900, plus whatever for any other problems they find while in there. Imagine that, a Ford service guy who is full of s***. My knowledge of transmissions is pretty weak, but the symptoms we have do not sound at all like a clutch related problem. No problems with anything other than 5th or reverse.
Thanks again,
Dave
