My 2003 F250 with only 180k miles on it has always had a sloppy shifter (which is a SUPER common problem, at least with the older Superdutys) ever since I owned it, never thought much about it until last week, when I was backing into the driveway and a very special looking pin falls out from the steering column onto my right foot...uh oh. What was weird was that everything still seemed to work ok...although it seemed that somehow my shifter was maybe even a little bit more sloppy now. I figured I had better figure out where this important looking pin goes, before I find out the hard way, so yesterday I did a little digging online and found all kinds of interesting tips...even though I didn't specifically nail down where that pin belonged. So I went out and poked my head under the dash to check on one of the common issues that I had read about, and sure enough, mine had it too...loose bolts where the shift tube coming down the steering column attaches to the stamped steel lever that operates the shift cable. The good thing about fixing this is that it is literally a 5 minute fix...nothing to tear apart since it is accessible just by laying on on the drivers floor area with your head by the brake and gas pedals...if you look to the right side (passenger side) and above the steering shaft, you will see these 2 T30 torx bolts, and they are most likely loose...just back them out, one at a time, and put some blue Loctite on them and tighten back up, done! In this pic (not mine) there is only a red arrow to the one bolt, but you need to do both the torx head bolts shown there...this will very likely take all, or at least most, of the slop out out of your shifter...if there is still a little slop then you probably have worn bushings on the shift tube, which are cheap, but a little more work to replace (still not terrible though) and there's plenty of threads on how to do this if you search all the various Ford truck forums...mine has a little wear, but not near enough to make it worth bothering with...just tightening these 2 bolts made a HUGE difference! I looked all over for where the pin that started this lil journey belonged, but with no success...until, I took the plastic covers off the steering column (which requires removing the ignition switch...just turn the key to "on" and use a small screwdriver to push the spring loaded release pin on the bottom of the switch, then pull it straight out...at this point the top cover can be taken off. Once the cover was off I soon noticed that my parking pawl was sticking out and seemed loose and sloppy...sure enough, its pivot pin was missing. Fortunately, I was able to get the pivot pin back in and seated without too much trouble. The whole operation (replace pin and tighten the took probably less than an hour and now things are tighter than they've ever been (since I've owned it anyways) Hope this helps, I know there are plenty of you guys still running the older SD's like mine, and they about all have this issue.
Good tip! Have come across broken straps on top of the column that holds the shift tube too, i think all parts still available at ford dealer And loctite is your friend!!
