i've been doing some work cleaning, repainting, and repairing bits and bobs in my 91 and i briefly took the shift level off to clean around it and see how it worked. I put it back together and suddenly couldn't get the key out of the ignition, it was stuck in ACC. It was late so I disconnected the battery, took out the key and came back to it the next day. What i've come to realize is that if if have the handle off and I manually push down on the spring loaded mechanism the top button should depress everything works fine. But i put the handle back on and somehow the button doesn't depress that mechanism enough, and that's why it wont shift as it should, and presumably why the car doesn't think it's in park to let me remove the key.

is there anything tricky / special about putting this back together? I've got all the parts and it's pretty clear how they are supposed to go in. i can't understand how something so simple is tripping me up like this, i almost can't drive it.

 

It turns out that the small white plastic pieced that comes out of the shaft rotates. I had it rotated so that the main part of it was facing the front, where the rod that is activated by the bottom didn't come in contact with it very well. Simply rotating it 180 digress so that the main part extended towards the rear of the truck made everything work normally. Didn't notice that subtlety when taking it apart, I guess.