Chevrolet Repair: Oldsmobile Silhouette Chevy Venture no crank good bat, oldsmobile silhouette, shift linkage

Question
Hello, I have a oldsmobile silhouette which i believe is the same as a chevy venture minivan.

2001, 3.2 liter

Starter will not crank, specifically not getting ground to (new)starter relay.

Wife came home after working overnight, we got ready to take kids to school 45 mins later and the van would not start. tried all the usual suspects i could think of, wiggling between park and neutral, wiggling wires under dash, etc. have been working on it all weekend and this is where im at.

replaced ignition relay due to physical damage and the hope that that was the (easy) problem, no luck.

i can get the van to crank AND run by manually grounding the ignition relay with ignition "on". I can not permanently ground the relay because the starter will run in "on" position. So is my ignition switch working correctly when it is sending 12v+ to coil of relay when in "on" position, not just "start" position?

I have also checked/bypassed the park/neutral switch i think. 2 wire connector going to a switch attached to a linkage attached to shifter? all mounted on steering column.

from my checking, it looks like the computer provides the ground to the relay. what other things would prevent the computer from grounding the relay? unfortunately it appears alldata doesn't support this vehicle.

I'd appreciate any help, and will even take any wild A guesses at this point.

Answer
HI JJ, YOU HAVE DONE SOME WORK I SEE. YES THE IGNITION SWITCH IS WORKING CORRECTLY GETTING 12 VOLTS TO THE COIL. I CAN NOT THINK WHAT IS ON THE STEERING COLUMN BY THE SHIFT LINKAGE WITH ONLY 2 WIRES GOING TO IT UNLESS IT IS THE SHIFT INTERLOCK.I BELIEVE THIS VAN HAS THAT. I FEEL THE PROBLEM IS IN THE NEUTRAL SAFTY SWITCH.. OPEN THE HOOD AND LOOK TO SEE WHERE THE SHIFT LINKAGE IS GOING INTO THE TOP OF THE TRANSMISSION. [DRIVERS SIDE,LIKE MAYBE UNDER THE MASTER CYLINDER AREA] YOU WILL SEE A MOON SHAPED SWITCH WITH A WIRING HARNESS PLUGGING INTO THIS. THERE WILL BE MANY WIRES TO THIS SWITCH. I HAVE SEEN MANY SWITCHES CORRODE OR THE HARNESS WHERE IT IS PLUGGED INTO THE SWITCH CORRODES..TRY TO UNPLUG THIS HARNESS AND LOOK AT IT VERY CAREFULL FOR RUSTY SPOTS OR BURNED WIRES..I THINK YOU WILL FIND YOUR PROBLEM. PLEASE RATE THIS QUESTION, THIS WILL HELP ME AND IF YOU NEED MORE HELP GET BACK TO ME. HOPE THIS HELPS TOM..