Shifter stuck in park

So my 97 runner was running perfectly fine up until last Sunday when I put it in park turned off the engine and came back about 10 minutes later it started up just fine but the shifter wouldn’t come out of park… the brake lights weren’t working either so I read some forums and replaced my ACC EGU and STOP fuses, replaced my taillight relay and replaced the brake light switch which fixed the issue of my brake lights.. we also took the plastic cover off and noticed mice chewed through my 4wd wires so we fixed those and that works now and the shifter started to work but the key now gets stuck in ignition unless I unclip one of the switches I believe ? In front of the 4wd h4-l4 shifter so I can get the key out and it went back to not coming out of park 3 days later so I’ve been using the park release switch to get her into neutral and then turn it on and drop her into drive but then it doesn’t want to go INTO park anymore either and the key also still gets stuck if I don’t unplug the thing and my park release also doesn’t want to work anymore.. think I’m missing the spring that goes on the release switch since there’s a tiny metal broken piece on it as if there was once a spring… anyway I just made this account to come here and see if anyone could help me out with this and or has had this happen to them and knows a fix ? Oh I also ran my codes already, had a toasted camshaft sensor which I replaced today as well but shifter and ignition are Still acting funny… also forgot to mention it’s an automatic transmission

 

Since the mention of mice, why didn't you just file through your insurance company?

 

This happened with my 01 Tacoma, & after hours of trying to figure it out, I finally saw a little tab looking thing on the front side of the shifter. I pulled it backwards & at the same time tried to move my shifter & it worked... hopefully that will help you

 

Welcome to the forum. You might check into the 3rd Gen forum and find some info there.