My gear shift handle/lever thing on my automaticis now extremely loose and will not go all the way over into park or 1st gear... I found a gold hex head bolt on the floor which I'm sure has something to do with it, but for the life of me I can't figure out where to put the dang thing back in! Anyone fix this before?

 

Very common for the torx (2) screws to back out of the shifter arm at the base of the steering column/shift tube.. Look 'up' from the lower dash and you'll see the trans selector cable attached to the arm.. You'll then see the 2 torx screws (one in your case at the arm's base.. They 'should' be loctited and retightened, but can be just tightened.. Also somewhat common, is for the shifter tube bushings to fail and will cause the shifter tube to wobble some and be a little sloppy.. Not a hard job to replace, but requires the steering column to be lowered down (not removed) for access to the clamps torx screws.. Generally just the shifter arm tightening will make a huge improvement.. When your under the dash after tightening the shifter arm screws, move the shifter through the ranges and watch the shifter arm/selector tube to see if it moves 'up and down'.. Some movement is normal, but both of these conditions can/willmake for a 'shift hunt' range selection problem..

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Do I need to remove the plastic cover from the steering column to access this? Or is is further back/down?

 

No...

If you look up from about where your feet would be on the carpet, look straight up and you'll see the main column body.. At it's base, or right about where the steering shaft enters the column body (follow on up from the firewall) you'll see a small ujoint at the columns base on the steerinfg shaft,, the shifter arm/tube is just above and to the passenger side of the steering shaft.. Tried to find you a better pic for clarity, but this will give you the general area looking from bottom up.. You'll need a #30 torx driver socket to pull it tight...

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I couldn't start my F250 unless I put it in N and I knew it was a problem w/ the gear shift. Thank goodness for Ford fourum, it's all fixed now!!