Long story short I hit a massive divet, popped the truck out of gear, pulled over and found that the truck only goes into drive if you shift past drive into 2nd then push the shifter down. Pretty sure it’s something internal, I checked for proper adjustment on the needle and the linkage appears to be in good shape. What can be done? Should I just drive and not worry about it? Thanks all

 

Check motor and trans mounts......

 

Both are in good shape, really my question is how far do you have to pull your shifter to get into d? Because mine has to be pulled almost all the way to 2 then you back off and it drops in the slot. Just wondering a if that’s normal, I can’t recall if it was like that before I hit a divot going Mach Jesus.

 

Nope. Not normal. Sounds like maybe sloppy bushings in the linkage?

 

upon investigation there is a bushing that was popped out. With some effort I got it back in but honestly it’s not a huge difference. The trans won’t catch drive until your about 3/4 to 2nd. Stays in drive just fine, I’m able to access all gears immediately, no issues going through the gears. I am considering just taking it to a trans expert to take a look, but in the meantime there’s no drivability issues. Opinions?

 

With everything back in place, verify the shift linkage is properly adjusted, and that there isn't some other slop coming from somewhere. (probably need to people for that exercise.)

 

will do when I have another person. As far as I can tell the slop is gone, if there is any it’s in the actual shift lever. Unfortunately I think there may be damage to the detents that hold the trans in gear, I can shift from d to n without pulling back on the gear selector. I’m curious if the detents are internal?

 

The detents are internal on the transmission valve body. As was mentioned, the shifter linkage rods and bushings are likely where your issue lies based upon your description. May need a new bushing (or two) and re-adjust the linkage rod.

 

There's a plastic screw under the column to calibrate the PRND21 indicator, its possible something here could have come loose unless you're physically feeling the difference and not just going off the indicator.

 

just did the adjustment on that and that seemed to fix the issue mostly. I believe I was getting a false drive due to the indicator and was actually almost in neutral, had it pop out once or twice before I figured out the correct spot for drive. I’ll be driving about 100 miles tomorrow so that’ll be the pressure test to make sure the trans is doing what it’s supposed to.