Shifter moves, but doesn't engage

[savaric]

Have a 97' Ford Contour 2.5 v6 auto trans.

The car starts fine and everything seems to work great. Trying to put the car in gear using the shifter and just acts like its in neutral, through all gears. R D 2 1. Sometimes it does actually go into gear, I had it in reverse briefly today before it decided against it and started rolling forward through what seemed like a loss of power. The transmission fluid level is good. The engine sounds great, just when revved it just acts like its in neutral. I did notice a high pitched whine under the hood, after revving the engine and would slowly go away. Not entirely sure if its related or not. Usually 3 or 4 rev's and it was no longer audible.

[G O R T]

With the engine off have someone move the shifter while you watch the selector input shaft on top of the tranny to be sure it moves consistantly.

If that is OK make sure your dipstick has not slipped down in the cap, leading to an incorrect reading.


If you do not know the history of the car, it may have the wrong fluid in it.

If you know the car was fine and then went bad you may well have internal transmission problems.