1995 Mercury Sable Shift cable or other?

MIMI9011

MEMBER
1995 MERCURY SABLE
6 CYL
FWD
AUTOMATIC
147,700 MILES

Recently, when I first start car after sitting or in morning my check engine light will come one. However it never stays on lon enough to get to my mechanic to pull the code. Today however on my way home from work I got no check engine light but when I stopped to get gas, I put car in park then turned the ignition off, when I finished I turned vehicle on and went to put it in gear the gear shifter moved up and down freely and did not engage transmission.
Fortunately, there was a mechanic available at the station and he was able to engage the transmission manually (I have an automatic transmission w/ console shifter). When I arrived home I not thinking moved the shifter to park and the transmission went into park no problem.
A short time later I tried with a friend sitting in car to manually try to put it in gear and was unable to move it into drive gear.
My question is one problem related to the other, if not what could the problem be with the shifter? It feel like the cable broke but is there any other component of the transmission that could be broke (i.E. The unit the cable connects to on the transmission)?

1 Reply

JNOVACK

MECHANIC
723 POSTS

Ok first thing get in car and try to put into gear if you can put back into park then lift hood on drivers side is the transmision on top of it you will see a cable with a plastic round connector that goes onto a linkage make sure nut holding linkage is tight and also make sure that plastic connector is tight on the linkage it should have a clip that holds it on if no clip go to dealer and buy one it is easy to put on all you have to do is slide it over the connector and push till it clicks