After all that......
Neutral safety. Switch. made the. Shifter a whole lot stouter but at the end of day it was the starter all along. If there's a. Flat spot on the. Armature it will act the same as a. Shift lock solenoid issue. It was. A. Beeatch to get to but. It. Was. The. Problem all along.
Some additional helps
My 99 started to do the same thing. Watched some YouTube videos that had the tranny up on a stand and the guy having a real hard time getting the switch off the shaft (like I did) only I was under the car. There's not a lot of room around that switch to get a pry bar into...
