My car suddenly will not lock into park or keep me from accidentally shifting from park to reverse on the fly. I do not have to push in the release button in the shifter T shaped **** to shift out of park. I can just grab the shifter and slide it from one gear to the next and back without pushing that release button. I am very confused. Is this a common problem?

 

Shifter failure. The thing IS 26 years old. Now, you might be able to keep using it as it is, you might be able to fix it, or you could replace it with either another used shifter, or a new aftermarket shifter such as the B&M console Megashifter.

 

The park lock cable broke, but from what you are describing, it sounds like either the parking pawl inside your transmission (the little "ratchet" mechanism that blocks the output shat from turning) either broke, snapped, or the spring went bye-bye. That , or like mentioned above, the actual mechanism in the shifter itself has failed.

 

turns out when i took apart the console there is a little spring that holds the metal clip in place which slides into the notches on the shifter. one end of the spring broke.