Just did this job while the car was off the road for the winter. Was fun, let me tell ya! 
The shift lever suddenly became floppy - as in, when you pull it toward you to shift, it would not spring back the way it's supposed to. This is the first time I had ever encountered this issue in any car.
I found a NOS spring after contacting the local dealer. They told me the part was no longer made (not surprised), but the parts guy was kind enough to give me the part number. A quick Google search for D8BZ7B071A, and BAM - found this place here: http://www.nospartsltd.com/Default.asp Wasn't too cheap, considering it's just a tiny spring, but at least it's fixed now.
Didn't think I'd ever find a replacement spring! Searching online without the p/n proved useless. I couldn't find a single post on this procedure, so I figured I'd post up mine. It's not for the mechanically faint of heart. Had to use a dental mirror and an allen wrench like chopsticks while holding a flash light in the other hand in order to remove the forward-facing bolts from the steering column.
While I was getting into the column, I removed the instrument cluster to lube all the gears up, and the cable, to quiet down the racket that developed recently. I recalled doing the same to my first Marquis at around 240k miles - this one needed TLC a bit sooner.
I'm going off memory here so bear with me. You'll probably get a better idea from the pics. At the time I did this, I wasn't on this forum, so I didn't take more detailed pics or plan the instructions better. Sorry!
Once you get the plastic off the column, you need to remove the 3 allen bolts that face forward - can't see them without a mirror AND flashlight at the same time. It's a pain - trust me. Getting them back in is even MORE fun! You can see the spring I'm talking about in the second pic, and the general direction of those 3 allens by where the mirror is, and by the allen key I left in one of them for this pic. Once those are removed, then you can slide that entire shifter assembly toward the passenger side (with some wiggling), then remove the one bolt at the base of the spring, which allows you to slide the shaft and spring out in one shot. My spring came out in 8 pieces!
If your going to remove your instrument cluster, be aware of that plastic shift indicator collar - it will be VERY brittle, and will probably break. I tried welding the plastic back together, but this type of plastic has no strength when repaired that way. I ended up using 2 large zip-ties around the entire thing. Now the shift indicator is finally back to normal! It hasn't been in the 10 years we've owned it. OD used to be D, and N used to be OD ....
The shift lever suddenly became floppy - as in, when you pull it toward you to shift, it would not spring back the way it's supposed to. This is the first time I had ever encountered this issue in any car.
I found a NOS spring after contacting the local dealer. They told me the part was no longer made (not surprised), but the parts guy was kind enough to give me the part number. A quick Google search for D8BZ7B071A, and BAM - found this place here: http://www.nospartsltd.com/Default.asp Wasn't too cheap, considering it's just a tiny spring, but at least it's fixed now.
Didn't think I'd ever find a replacement spring! Searching online without the p/n proved useless. I couldn't find a single post on this procedure, so I figured I'd post up mine. It's not for the mechanically faint of heart. Had to use a dental mirror and an allen wrench like chopsticks while holding a flash light in the other hand in order to remove the forward-facing bolts from the steering column.
While I was getting into the column, I removed the instrument cluster to lube all the gears up, and the cable, to quiet down the racket that developed recently. I recalled doing the same to my first Marquis at around 240k miles - this one needed TLC a bit sooner.
I'm going off memory here so bear with me. You'll probably get a better idea from the pics. At the time I did this, I wasn't on this forum, so I didn't take more detailed pics or plan the instructions better. Sorry!
Once you get the plastic off the column, you need to remove the 3 allen bolts that face forward - can't see them without a mirror AND flashlight at the same time. It's a pain - trust me. Getting them back in is even MORE fun! You can see the spring I'm talking about in the second pic, and the general direction of those 3 allens by where the mirror is, and by the allen key I left in one of them for this pic. Once those are removed, then you can slide that entire shifter assembly toward the passenger side (with some wiggling), then remove the one bolt at the base of the spring, which allows you to slide the shaft and spring out in one shot. My spring came out in 8 pieces!
If your going to remove your instrument cluster, be aware of that plastic shift indicator collar - it will be VERY brittle, and will probably break. I tried welding the plastic back together, but this type of plastic has no strength when repaired that way. I ended up using 2 large zip-ties around the entire thing. Now the shift indicator is finally back to normal! It hasn't been in the 10 years we've owned it. OD used to be D, and N used to be OD ....
I didn't look at it too closely ...
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