Won't go into 1st gear

[R***A**N**G**E***R]

I was coming back from a clients house yesterday and they live on a very steep gravel road and when I was leaving and coming back down I decided to put it in 1st gear and to my surprise the gear shifter STOPS on 2nd gear and won't go any lower.

On a side note about 3 months ago I was driving and a bolt fell out of my shifter behind the dash and fell straight down to my floor mat,when that happened the shifter got really sloppy and I could not put it in park so when I got home I took the plastic panel and metal kick plate off below my colum and was able to see exactly where the screw backed out off and lined it back up and put the screw back in and my shifter went back to normal, the screw has not come back out so I am assuming something else is going on.

Any thoughts? or have you experienced this exact same thing with 1st gear and what resolved the problem?

 

[DarkMax]

Ive got a couple of stupid questions for you-

Did you try to go through all the gears when you put that bolt back in?
What type of vehicle is it-is the shifter on your column or on the floor?
Have you checked your transmission fluid recently?
How old is the vehicle?
With the shifter in "park", bring it down and count each gear going down to see if you are actually reaching first, or if the indicator is off.
Take off the panel to see cable and trace it back to wherever it pivots, if its down near the transmission, have a buddy slowly bring it from park to 1st, and see if anything is blocking it on the transmission side of the cable.

 

[R***A**N**G**E***R]

Ive got a couple of stupid questions for you-

Did you try to go through all the gears when you put that bolt back in?
What type of vehicle is it-is the shifter on your column or on the floor?
Have you checked your transmission fluid recently?
How old is the vehicle?
With the shifter in "park", bring it down and count each gear going down to see if you are actually reaching first, or if the indicator is off.
Take off the panel to see cable and trace it back to wherever it pivots, if its down near the transmission, have a buddy slowly bring it from park to 1st, and see if anything is blocking it on the transmission side of the cable.

It is on my 1996 ford ranger automatic, I am pretty sure I tried all the gears when I put the bolt back in, it goes into park - reverse - drive - second, just fine BUT stops on second and won't go any lower and is definitely not in 1st when it is at it's lowest point.

 

[adsm08]

Crawl under, unhook the selector cable from the trans, and then see if the lever will move the full range. If it does, then get back under and try to move it manually through the gears. Go slowly and count them off as you go.

 

[DarkMax]

Well the gen3 ranger's are cable driven instead of flybywire, so disasemble the panels around your steering column and watch the movement to see if anything is blocking it. Also, when that bolt fell out it might have been an adjustment bolt. If its easy to get to, loosten it up some and try to get it into first. if that doesnt work look at the opposite end of the shifter cable to see if anything is stopping its movement.

When was the last time you were able to get in into first?
Does your truck have 4x4? try going into first with it engaged if you do.
Checked your A/T fluid recently?

 

[R***A**N**G**E***R]

Well while I was fixing a wire on my brake switch I noticed two bolts that were loose and after tightening them up my sloppy shifter problem went away and I got first gear back

 

[Chuck "Classic Ford" JR.]

I don't mean to hijack your thread or anything, but I have a first gen (86 2WD 2.9L auto) and I have the same problem of not being able to shift into first gear. Mine has the floor shifter as I assume all first gens did....

 

[Andy D]

Pretty sure the original post was about an automagic column mounted shifter.
Does your Ranger have an AT?

 

[Chuck "Classic Ford" JR.]

Yes, mine is an automatic.

 

[SuperB]

Just had a Jasper Trans Put in my B3000, right before I had tightened all the linkage under the dash and after tightening that had L1 for the 1st time since I owned the truck. After I got the truck back (new trans) I went on the test drive and stoped on a side road.... No L1. cheecked under dash linkage all good. Mechanic said there was no other adjustment. But the cable Does have an adjustment on the trans side.... pull the white clip on the cable and you have about 1/2 - 3/4 of an inch the plastic housing will adjust in and out. Hope that helps if you tried everything else that could be the cause. I chocked the wheels disconected, put shifter in L1 ... reattached cable with the clip pulled out and moving free. locked it down and it now has all the gears. also if you have all the gears , not alot of play and needle is off, there is an adjustment for that under the dash behind the metal reeinforcement plate.