F 150 will only drive in 2nd gear

[raej]

Gears are are jacked up drive is not drive, nuetral is reverse, park - won't go into park. Here is what happend. Just got in my truck drove 1/4 a mile, turned off truck to go into store. When I put it in drive, the truck would not move just rev the engine. I put it in 2nd gear and it got me home. Now I went back out reverse is not working nuetral is now reverse, still only driving in 2nd gear. Tried again and now it won't go into park, it's sitting in nuetral and only driving in 2nd gear. Appears to be getting worse. Single Mom and I'm totally afraid.. not sure if I should drive to my mechanic that is 20 miles away or what the what.... advice greatly appreciated. Ford F 150 2002

[ProTech]

The most common thing here would be a broken or mis-adjusted shift cable. It could have possibly come loose from the adjustment point and is now not reading correctly. Or it could have broken and the excess play in the cable is not letting you select the correct gear. It would be safe to drive, just know what gear you're actually in and be careful of burning up the trans from over-revving. To get it in part, you may have to have another person get under the truck and manually move the shift lever into park. **Always have a person inside the truck holding the brake so it won't move when someone is under it**

[carriedi]

near the bottom of the steering column there is a shift tube lever that has two torx bolts that can come loose. They are hard to get to but you can get to them and tighten them. Fords also have the shift tube break. So the shifter doesn't actually connect to the shift cable anymore. I posted a picture in the ford gallery
http://www.greatautohelp.com/forums/gal ... mage_id=31