Ford ThunderBirdFord thought they'd take their own stab at the nostalgia business. There are quite a few last-century icons that wear the blue oval. For a revival subject, why not use a car famous enough to have been the subject of Beach Boys songs, starred in George Lucas movies, and has been gone long enough to be missed? Why not indeed. In 2002, the Thunderbird was reborn.
I am the owner of an 89 Ford Thunderbird V6 4.8L with 220,000 Km's. Yesterday i got stuck in the snow (canadian). My buddy drove it out as i pushed becuz i'm stronger and he was just revving the crap out of the engine. He was rocking it back and forth and hitting the brakes and stopping between every switch of momentum. We got unstuck and proceeded. We than got stuck again and realised we now had no Reverse. and when you put the tranny in Neutral, the car went forward. I managed to limp it home in drive without any problems, drove great not overheating or anything. Threw it up on jackstands today and figured i would take a loot in the tranny pan for some metal/paper or any crap to tell me if the transmission was done. But the oil was clean, no dirt. Nothing!... except this plug looking thing. It kind of looks like a halfsphere (Diameter=10cm?) connected to a much smaller cylinder (Diameter=2cm?) The cylinder's length is about an inch and a half. Does anyone have any ideas where this plug came from? could it be why i'm having transmission problems?
o man i had the very same problem! i had an 89 bird with a 3.8. i got it stuck in the snow and was rocking it. then the shift pattern got messed up just like urs. TAKE IT TO A SHOP!! after a few days or a week it locks in park and u cant get it out no matter what. im not sure what it was but my mechanic came to my house and was underneath trying to get it out of park. they had to tow it to the garage. i ended up changing the trans out from another 89 i had.
I found the same plug thing in my '93 Thunderbird, I was told it was a "stop cock" Don't know if that is it's true name, but it was put in the dip stick tube when the tranny was made. It is to prevent dust and junk getting in the trans while being stored and installed. When installed the dip stick is shoved in to pop it out to put fluid in, and lays in pan. Until fluid gets changed. Since, I have seen same thing in a few cars getting the fluid changed for the first time.
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Transmission trouble (easy fix?) 
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