well it had to happen sooner or later, I've encountered an issue with the car in that theres no drive. The car has been stood on the drive for 10 days while I was on holiday, first drive this morning I noticed that the gear selector was stiff but didnt think anything of it. Then I noticed that the up shifts were getting later and later until about 100 yards from home it was stuck in 2nd gear and wouldnt shift up at all until I worked it from drive to 4th,3rd,2nd then back to drive and it seemed to clear. On arriving at home it wouldn't pull up the drive at all. I put it in park and you could hear the pawl clicking slightly as the car rolled backwards. Hand brake on and I switched off to get my so to push, then on the restart I got a red light and engine failsafe, with no start. Only after working the selector would it start and I then limped it to the road at the front of the house. Dont know what codes are there as I left my reader at work. Is this just a cable/switch issue or am I looking at gearbox overhaul?
Thanks

 

I am guessing it is a 4.0L from the manual gear range you identified in your post, 'drive to 4th,3rd,2nd then back to drive', but other than that, what year and model is the car? The transmissions and electronics varied from year to year and model. It could very well be a mechanical issue with the gear selector and associated micro-switches, since you noted the selector was stiff when shifting into gear.

 

After raming the selector to park, the car started and then I had to ram it into drive to get it back up the drive. I got it on the ramps and disconnected the linkage then tried the selector, it was free and i could work the cable from the selector end without stiffness. Found the issue to be the small ball joint on the end of the cable was seized solid to the point where the movement was between the stud part of the ball joint and the crank arm. I wanted to unbolt the cable block from the gearbox but it was tight and the last thing I wanted was to shear a bolt off. Next step is to try and unscrew the ball joint assembly from the end of the cable but I need some long series spanners to get in plus I've run out of WD40! At least its a cheap fix