I was wondering if anyone has ever had a problem with the shift position indicator on the steering column becoming loose and not staying in the indents. On mine you have to pull the shifter down into nuetral to get the tranny into reverse and down to 2nd to get it into drive.

There is approx 1in of free play in the shifter column unless it is in park. I checked the ajustment located on the drivers side near the firewall as it stated in the tsb, but it doesn't help. It makes it near impossible to tell what gear you are in with the slack. Let me know what you did to resolve it if you had this problem as well. Thanks.

 

there are 2 screws that hold the actual indicator on the back of the instrument cluster... they may be loose, have you checked them?

quote from the manual...
"A red pointer appears in a window below the character in the indicator representing the transmission gear that has been selected. The small spring loaded pointer moves on a track through a trolley like mechanism whithin the indicator housing. A short length of small diameter stranded cable is attached to one side of the pointer trolley and is encased in a tubular plastic housing that exits the right side of the indiactor. the cable is routed through the instrument panel and under the steering column to the left side of the column. the looped end of the cable is hooked over the end of the prndl driver lever on the steering column gearshift mechaanism. and the cable housing is secured in a molded plastic adjuster and bracket on the column housing. when the gear selector lever is moved the prndl driver lever moves which moves the pointer though the mechanical actuator cable. the cable adjuster and bracket unit mounted on the steering column housing provides a mechanical means of calibrating the gear selector indicator mechanism."

whew, man that's alot of typing...

anyway, sounds like you need to pull the steering column apart to get at the adjuster, once you have it off the mechanism, you should be able to pull it and watch the pointer go thru all of the gears on the instrument cluster (IC). if the cable has a full range of motion on the IC then the problem is in your column. check the shifter mechanism and make sure it is moving properly, if that's good, then you should be able to re-install the selector and re-adjust it... there is a reference to the steering column installation in the manual... I'll have a look and see if there is anything to add...

HTH...

 

here's a pic from the manual...

[IMG]local://upfiles/1508/A40089DF1C1F4A8E926BF596C2E3121F.jpg[/IMG]

 

god that sounds like a bitch of a thing to have to do for two screws....

 

I pulled the lower dash and the IC indicator has full range of motion. The problem must be in the column itself. Do you think I'll have to buy an entire column to get it working properly?

 

no, shouldnt have to. it has to be in the adjustment of the cable. either it's not grabing it correctly or something is broke.

 

ok thanks for your input on both the problems I posted needing help figuring out. I will start on the column adjustments as soon as I get the misfire issue worked out. I am read online that on the ram truck models that do not have a schrader valve on the fuel rail require a "Miller Specialty Tool #6923" in order to adapt a fuel pressure gauge and check pressure. Everyone that I asked had never heard of it, so I am just going to replace the pump assembly and hope for the best. It will be a couple of weeks until I get back from out of state before I can get at it again. I will post the reults just in case anyone else has the same problems as me.

Again, thanks to you all.