Sounds like the neutral safety switch. This switch prevents the engine from starting in any gear other than Park or Neutral.

When they fail, you get two symptoms: 1)Car doesn't make a noise when you try to crank it. Eveything lights up, but the car won't crank. You shouldn't hear the engine turn over at all. 2)Car only starts in Neutral but won't start in Park.

Note that #2 doens't always apply. In my case, I didn't think it was the NSS at first, since it wouldn't start in Park OR Neutral. Turned out to be the switch anyhow.

It's on the transmission. Try tapping it while someone cranks the engine to see if it starts to crank. You can also bridge the connections and bypass it temporarily.

Neal

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