Hard to shift out of park

I always park vehicles by doing the following:

1. hold down the brake pedal
2. shift to Neutral
3. set the parking brake
4. release the brake pedal to let vehicle roll a bit
5. shift to Park.
6. turn off engine

I thought this would prevent the automatic transmission's parking pawl
from becoming wedged, but after driving my father's 2002 Nissan
Frontier 2WD w/automatic recently, I think I may be wrong,

I had no problems the first time I started his truck, but on the
second start and afterwards, the shifter would stay stuck in Park
unless I moved the truck back and forth slightly. This happened every
time until I decided to adopt my father's method of parking:

1. hold down brake pedal
2. shift to Park
3. turn off engine
4. release brake pedal (truck usually roll some)

I never had any more problems with the shifter being stuck, but why?
Also this never happened with my 1998 Frontier 2WD automatic.

I don't think the neutral safety switch or any brake-transmission
interlock is to blame, but I'm no expert. The parking brake on the
2002 Frontier held fine, both forward and backward.

Maybe most of us do it a bit differently.

When I brake to a stop, I put the tranny in Park.
Then, I release the brake and turn off the engine.

I should (and sometimes do) set the handbrake after this.


"larry moe 'n curly" > wrote in message
...
>I always park vehicles by doing the following:
>
> 1. hold down the brake pedal
> 2. shift to Neutral
> 3. set the parking brake
> 4. release the brake pedal to let vehicle roll a bit
> 5. shift to Park.
> 6. turn off engine
>
> I thought this would prevent the automatic transmission's parking pawl
> from becoming wedged, but after driving my father's 2002 Nissan
> Frontier 2WD w/automatic recently, I think I may be wrong,
>
> I had no problems the first time I started his truck, but on the
> second start and afterwards, the shifter would stay stuck in Park
> unless I moved the truck back and forth slightly. This happened every
> time until I decided to adopt my father's method of parking:
>
> 1. hold down brake pedal
> 2. shift to Park
> 3. turn off engine
> 4. release brake pedal (truck usually roll some)
>
> I never had any more problems with the shifter being stuck, but why?
> Also this never happened with my 1998 Frontier 2WD automatic.
>
> I don't think the neutral safety switch or any brake-transmission
> interlock is to blame, but I'm no expert. The parking brake on the
> 2002 Frontier held fine, both forward and backward.
>

1964 in Vietnam.1963 Ford Army Olive Drab pickup truck, the manual shift
column shift gear shift lever wouldn't move at all.I dribbled some oil
around the gear shift lever under the steering wheel and the gear shift
linkage under the hood.That pickup truck ran like a Sportscar.I wish I
could find me a good Ford pickup truck like that to buy and fix it
up.Even more so, a 1941 to 1947 Ford pickup truck.
cuhulin