Trans stuck in park

96 skylark .. 3.1 automatic
I have a hard time getting the trans into foward gear. (no reverse at all) you can see the motor move just like it should when shifting in to foward. it wants to go but seems like its stuck in park .. cant get the wheels free to push it back out of the driveway. I can mess with the shifter up and down till sometimes after a few mins it will hit then it will drive just fine till i go back to park then stuck agian... got to be something simple just dont know .. yesterday when I finialy got foward I drove 140 miles soon as i put it in park it was stuck again arrrgh today I shut it off in nutral and it was ok right into drive ... but you cant turn off the key so thats not gonna work .. cant afford a trans shop for a 600 dollar car I got from a realitive it runs and shifts so nice when it does go .. HELP had a guy say to check the brake ped switch . going out to see about that now . wanted to post 1st. please just send me down the right path . made me late for work 3 times in the last week .. next time i get the ax.....

You need to find out if it's the shifter, the cable or the tranny......

You will need another person for this......you will have to pop the cable off the shift linkage of the tranny.....start car with hood open....keep foot on brake and have someone manually move the shift linkage on the tranny, one detent, to reverse, back to park, and back to reverse and see if the vehicle moves.....if it does, but you have problems with the cable connected, you know it's not the tranny....

By the way, I ASSUME you have checked fluid level and condition?

Put in new filter and fluid. did the cable thing. still the same results thats when I saw the moter move on the mounts ... each way like you were standing on the brake . if you go friom nutral to drive slowly for about a min. it will let go and drive fine. till i go to park or reverse . then its stuck again....

Ok looks like its the linkage inside the transmition , there is a long linkage thet has a ball type thing on the end , that pushes it into park. That part has come loose , all the gears work fine but when you get any where close to park*(meaning rev) it goes to park and gets stuck.. . if I stay away from reverse it works fine . just cant back up unless I do it in nutral and push.. Hope this helps somebody ,not rebuilding it the cost of labor is over 800 to 1100 thats what the shop says.