Three problems related to automatic transmission park/neutral start switch have been reported for the 1996 Ford F-250. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
Unit was parked and shifter placed in the "park" position. The truck rolled back across the parking lot and came into contact with another vehicle. Witnesses on the scene verified that the shifter was in park but that transmission was not engaged in that position. After this incident, it was determined, by experiment, that the indicator on the shifter did not show the actual gear. When in "park" the truck was actually in either reverse or neutral. According to other sources, this problem, of either jumping out of park or not being in the gear indicated, has been a problem with Ford automatic transmissions in the past.
The vehicle was in park and it was sitting for 15 minutes. The vehicle went from park to drive all by it's self. I was told by my mechanic that this is a common problem with this particular transmission, the transmission is electronic and he suspectt a selonide caused the problem. I feel that this is a safty issue.
The transmission gear indicator indicates that the vehicle is in park when it is actually in reverse or neutral. The vehicle was turned off and in park, and it rolled down an incline and struck a post. This is the third 1996 Ford f250 in our company that the shift indicator linkage had the screws back out, causing this same thing to happen.