97 Disco. I parked the car in a parking garage, driving fine, returned and it was stuck in Park - the brake lights wouldn't come on. I changed the fuses, and replaced the brake light switch. Ok, the brake lights come on now. BUT, I'm still stuck in park!
The automatic shift lever button was sticking, so I figured that may be the problem. So, I popped off the cap of the shifter and manually pulled on the metal lever inside. Still stuck in park!!

I thought maybe something was sticking under the center console. So, I took a screw driver and did some gentle prying, under direct visualization through the shifter slit, in the hopes that I would dislodge stuck piece. Still stuck in park!

I also removed the inhibitor solenoid from the driver’s side of transmission housing-just above the trans oil pan (front/drivers side). Looked ok-the push rod stuck out approx 1/4 inch and pushed in easily with my finger. I tried getting the car out of gear with inhibitor solenoid removed. Still stuck! I wiped solinoid clean and replaced.

After a whole day of waiting for a special low lying tow truck to get me out of the parking garage, I figured out how to manually put the disco in drive from underneath and drove it home.

Any idea's on what went wrong? It shocks me that both the brake light switch went bad and another component failed at the same time!
Could I have shorted something when I placed my screw driver through the shifter slit in the center console?
I've read about a second solenoid under the center console which can only be accessed by drilling out some rivets. I'd hate to drill and found out that's not the problem.
I'd hate to take this to a dealer, but all I can think of next is to remove the center console in the hopes that something will present itself.
I figure (hope) it must be something inter-related to brake light switch circuit??

Appreciate any help I can get!

 

My '97 Disco had a similar issue when I bought it. It got "stuck" in park, so the previous owner tried to force it. Basically, the shift solenoid got bent and was sticking... You can pull the shifter assembly out of the rig with out taking the rivets out. It takes some time, but it is straight forward. From there, you can have a look at the crazy system that LR dreamed up to lock the shift in Park. Hopefully, the issue with be obvious.

Good luck!

 

thanks! I took apart the center console. It ended up that I ruined the micro switch that controls the solenoid. Costs $80. I just removed the worthless system

 

If I remember right, that micro switch sells from about $2 from Radio Shack. You can also check with Digikey or other electrical part vendors.

Tim