Earlier this morning I had to drive my wife's car a short distance. When I tried to put it in drive, the shift lever refused to pull down for quite a while - took 10-15 tries before it finally went into drive. Same issue on the return trip. Note: temperature was in the low thirties then.

I noted that the shift lever would not allow being pulled toward the driver for the normal distance until it finally went into gear.

I have a Ford Technical Pubs Service Manual CD, and found the section for the Transmission Range Selector (Villager - tilt steering wheel type). Reviewed that section.

Early afternoon I tried it again and it worked 20 times in a row - no hangup at all. Then, a few minutes ago (almost 4PM), I tried it again and it hung on the first try (couldn't pull the lever all the way back) but then it released and worked ok thereafter.

The clue is that the lever wants to hang on the rearward pull. Is this problem likely isolated to the Selector lever mounting assembly on the column, and (hopefully) would not involve the shift cable or transmission itself?

If so, something needs some renewed lubrication or whatever.

The wife did say that she had 'a little' trouble like this when cold, but I'll guarantee she hasn't experienced what I did - you can bet I would have heard about it big time!

Any help here will be greatly appreciated.