92 ford tempo automatic wont shift from park

To bring you up to speed, here is the deal.... I purchased a 92 ford tempo from a car auction. they had to tow the car through the auction house (pickup and tow rope).

After the auction, I was informed that the car did run, but being the alternator was removed, they didnt want to run the car. So, I put the alternator back on (yes, it is bad, but I just wanted to hear the car run), and placed a battery in it. The engine runs like a top. Then I tried to shift it from park....and it wont leave the park position.

Now, I didnt see the wheels when they were towing it (I was in the back row), but I am assuming that at that point in time, in order to tow it (by tow rope), the car had to be in netural, or else the drive wheels would have been dragging, making it near impossable to tow. My question is, why cant I get it out of park?

I have tried rocking the car while someone else was tring to get it out of park, I tried appling the brake while tring to shift from park, and I tried appling the hand-brake (parking brake) while tring to shift from park, and nothing works.

I was wondering if it could be one of the following...

1: A cable disconneted that wont release the transmisson from park 2: Low tranny fluid (I forgot to check this.....) 3: I was told that a "blown fuse" is what is causing the onboard computer from releasing the tranny, is this true? 4: Could it be possable that after they towed it out of the auction, they placed it into park while the car was in motion, causing the tranny to lock up? But, from what I have read, the tranny is designed to prevent such a lockup.

Please, any help/info is greatly apperciated, I have 1 week to get the car out of there!

Thank you!

Reply to
MrDanLB
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Do the brake lights work?

Reply to
aarcuda69062

Do the brake lights work? Most cars, like my 93 Probe have to step on the brake to put the car in gear, or I have a key lock near the shift lever in the console, to unlock the lever. Mine is an electrically operated shift lever solenoid that operates off a brake pedal switch.

If you have a column mounted shift lever it may be completely different.

Something to look for anyway.....

Reply to
I. Care

Put the key in the column.

Turn it toward start ONE position... unlock column only... no lights on dash.

Shift to neutral.

Start the car.

Drive away.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

Thank you all for your help, but as it turns out, as what a friend of mine said, it was a blown fuse.

The fuse was the brake light fuse, so when you hit the brakes, the lights never came on, so the signal was never sent to the onboard computer to unlock the tranny.

again, thank you all for the help!

Reply to
MrDanLB

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