Chrysler Repair: 98 Cirrus transmission issue, external reason, shift rod

Question
Roland
Thanks again for the diagrams but I have one more piece of information to add to the puzzle and I am wondering if it might alter my next step of dropping the pan and possibly rebuilding the valve body. Today, on the suggestion of an engineer friend, I started the car and put it in Reverse and had someone (a pretty strong someone) push from the front and he could not budge the car. Then, with the car still running, I put it into Neutral and he still could not roll the car backwards. With the car off and in Neutral even a lightweight like me can push it. Is it possible that the car is not coming out of Park when the switch is activated and the the relay is in place? Could there be an external reason for this? Should I suspect the transaxle range sensor on the valve body?

Answer
Hi Mike,
The Park 'feature' is purely mechanical as far as I know and is controlled by the rotation of the vertical shift rod to the P position. It could be that the pawl which is moved into position to set the park lock on the gear tooth is stuck in place or not being moved by the usual mechanical connection between the shift rod and it. The connection is called the park sprag and it has rollers associated with it. I would believe that the park lock is totally mechanical and would not be impacted by the relay being there or not, or any other electrical/hydraulic function or even whether the engine is running or not. If you find otherwise please let me know. I could imagine that because of an engine mount being broken that the powertrain as a whole shifts from side to side so much that the gear shift rod is actually being rotated even though you haven't moved the shift lever in the cabin so that while you may think you are in reverse you actually are still in park. So check out that possibility.
Roland