My 1984 Mercury Marquis isn’t starting all the time - It now needs for me to push the steering column mounted shift lever upward to get it to allow starting (then it turns over and starts).
But it won’t even turn over, unless I push upward.
Over the past few years, the indicator of which gear I’m in has been getting off - that is, when I’m in Drive, it will indicate reverse, and neutral is near the park indication.
It never shows low drive, even when in it.
Where’s the problem? Big fix or easy one?
1984 small marquis, 3.8 L throttle body injected, Automatic (C5?) transmission (3 speed?)
I looked at this more - I got under the dash, and checked out the connection - what this car has is a solid metal rod, attached to the shift lever, and this rod runs thru the firewall- with no connections I could see - It does run thru one other metal piece in its course. but doesn’t seem to interact with it. Where is the park lockout in this car?? Couldnt I bypass that/?
I don’t see a cable, just solid metal.
This is probably what you need. It can be a common failure and especially on a 24 year old car. It’s located on the transmission housing and is easy to change. It can be bypassed but that is not really a good idea since one could inadvertently start the engine while the trans is in gear.
http://www.partsamerica.com/ProductDetail.aspx?MfrCode=GPS&MfrPartNumber=NS54&PartType=401&PTSet=A