Ford 5C5Z-7210-AC Lever - Gear Shift

Greetings all and thanks for checking this blog. I guess you will notice right off the bat the title of this post is a Ford part number and description. This is going to be way off topic but what else is new. I wanted to use this medium to share information about my experience with my 2004 Lincoln Aviator which could save others over $1000 or help them to decide whether to live with the problem or go ahead and have it repaired.

I'm guessing most folks would choose to save $1000 and live with the problem. However, there is an aspect of this which might dictate having it repaired. Therefore, I will post a link to my blog in other places which will draw people looking for automobile information rather than my status as a cancer survivor.

Speaking of that, I should share that I had a 50 per cent reduction in my paraprotein this month from 100 mg/dl to 50 mg/dl. Contrast this with 6000 mg/dl when I was diagnosed back in June of 2005 and that the protein level has been on a 100 to 170 mg/dl plateau for ten months or so. Not bad! It is so close to zero it almost hurts :)

Now the car stuff. I am posting this here because I have almost unlimited space to write. You might not care to read all of it but hopefully I will make this interesting enough for you to hang in there. If you are coming here because you want to find out about the shifter problem, I probably could just supply the facts as bullets and a couple of pictures and that would be good enough. This blog thing has a spell checker too which is good because I can't spell a lot of words.

You may be coming here because you saw Eric Kirkhuff's YouTube video and read my comment with the link to this blog (if they let that comment stay). Regardless how you got here, I want to share my experience with you and if you haven't seen Eric's video, you need to use this link and watch it first. You will learn some things I may not write about. Besides, a picture IS worth 1000 words! I plan on using a few pictures too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF6YbWr8mWk&feature=player_embedded#at=25

If you are a master mechanic and make your living out of a tool box, all this may seem amateurish and you probably repaired the shifter in your Lincoln or someone else's a long time ago. Just so you will know, I am a pretty good amateur mechanic. My dad was what I consider a master mechanic and quasi mechanical genius. I learned from him.

I pried the side inspection panel off the console to get a look and decided I would be way in over my head to attempt to repair this myself. However, knowing what I know now, I could probably do it in a day. Others have commented you will be better off to have the dealer do the work because they do this kind of stuff every day and will do a much better job. I tend to agree.

First, let's discuss the shift knob cover plate. A lot of folks have commented they tried to pry the plate off and broke it. Eric's video begins AFTER he removed the cover plate and even though he makes a few comments about the removal, I think you need a little more information and you will be able to remove the cover plate like I did without breaking it. I have worked with plastic parts like this on a semi-regular basis for thirty years so I sort of have an advantage. It will help to depress the big chrome button so you can get a little better clearance to work with.



The key to getting the cover plate off is to realize that the top front has two small plastic catches on each side pictured above. If you use a dull knife with a thin blade and very carefully pry from the middle toward each side, you may get lucky and it will pop out but not off. There is another catch Eric mentions at the bottom. Intuitively, you would think you need to use a small flat blade screwdriver and push in to get this to slide up. Counter intuitively, push the screwdriver blade in behind the catch, pull out toward you, and you are done with this. You can see the catch above the set screw hole in the picture below.



Speaking of the set screw, yours will probably be missing like mine was. You could call this the $1,000 set screw because this is what caused all the problems. Loss of this and subsequent breakage of the plastic interconnecting shaft could cause your wife or family or yourself to be stranded in the middle of no where unable to shift the car out of park. Read on.

Bear in mind, there is a plastic shaft inside the hollow metal outer shift lever. What I think happens is this. The set screw works loose due to all the movement and vibration of the shift lever. The set screw eventually falls out. You may notice the shift lever becomes loose but ignore it because it seems insignificant. If you could hear your shifter speaking to you, you would hear it screaming at you to replace the set screw. But you don't and you don't. This looseness will be your only warning.






Next, at some opportune moment, you or someone else will twist the shift knob enough to break the plastic shaft which you can see in the pictures above. This will permit the shift knob to be raised high enough to make the spring in the shift knob come out. Probably at this point, your shifter will be stuck in park and you will be unable to wiggle or move the shift knob so that it returns to its normal position.

If you are lucky like I was, you will be messing with it in your drive way when this happens. If not, you will probably have to tow it to the dealer who is going to tell you he wants you to buy a $950 part which has to be paid for in advance. Also, at this point, you will have a gut level reaction that tells you you could probably fix this with a good old country boy fix and save yourself $1000 if you just knew a little more about it. Even though this is partially true, the plastic shaft is broken which leaves you open to the shifter getting stuck in park if the improvised set screw were ever to work loose and fall out unbeknownst to you. You have to ask yourself, do you ever want to take that kind of risk. I'll tell you what my wife told me, NO.

The screw you see in the picture is one I found that seems to work. However, the length of the screw is critical because if you screw it in too far, it will lock the plastic shaft in place and make it impossible to shift. You really need the OEM screw to go back with or something almost identical. Also, the Ford dealer service manager suggested using the kind of Loctite they use on carburetor screws. You paint this stuff OVER the screw to hold it. If you ever need to remove the screw later, just scrape the LocTite off. Maybe Loctite 290 green for preassembled parts.

I decided to get the Ford dealer to do the repair. Just so you will have something to compare with, the shift knob does not move. It is as solid as a rock. It also seems to shift easier. I can't inspect everything but I will eventually get a look at the set screw and apply Loctite if it appears none was used.