Can't shift out of park

I have a 2008 automatic transmission taco and the only way I can get it out of park is to force it. My brake lights all work. And no fuses were blown. But to be certain I replaced all the fuses I read that could cause that issue. I also greased up the cable under the truck and it still won't shift out of park. Even the little button next to the shifter and it still won't go out of park unless I force it. I haven't tried replacing the switch yet since all my brake lights work. If I do and it doesn't work the next thing I can think of is replacing the shifter assembly in the truck

 

Is it only hard to get out of park or is it hard to move through the entire range of gears?

 

Do you park on an incline, with only the transmission in Park, or do you set the emergency brake before hand to take the load off of the pin?

 

Neutral safety switch...??

 

Try pulling your steering wheel while turning the key, sometimes the wheel lock feature makes it difficult to shift out of park if your steering wheel was cranked one way or the other when you turned the truck off.

 

Any resolution to the problem?

 

So to answer the comments. And I appreciate the feedback. It's only difficult coming out of park goes through the rest fine. No to the incline parking. Steering wheel is always straight. I'm going to try replacing the brake light switch since it feels like the solenoid isn't engaging when I press the brake to get out of park. I'll update whether or not it works

 

Unfortunately replacing the brake switch by the pedal didn't work. Since it cycles through all the gears fine and even goes to 4 wheel drive fine I know it's not the transmission. I dunno if something in the shifting assembly is fubar or a wire somewhere. But most like gonna take it to a mechanic

 

Unhook the shift cable from the transmission and see if the shifter is still difficult to move out of park.

 

I don't know how to do that.

 

So I'll be honest I didn't know about the brake light above the tailgate. I took a video of me testing the brake lights and the one above the tailgate is only half illuminated. Could it really be as simple as that light not working that's causing all this?

 

No. Highly unlikely. As the brake switch has to be working to get power to even half the light.
The shift lock doesn't have anything to do with the actual lights. It's the brake light switch it works off of.

 

If you say it's still hard to get out of park even if you press the Shift Lock Override button next to the shifter then I don't think it's an electronic issue.

 

Do what Dm93 posted above.

On a side note, there was a post years ago on here where the issue was the stupid little plastic wheel under the shift shifter.
If you look at your shifter, there is a black plastic guard the keeps stuff from falling into the shifter. Under that plactic piece is a little wheel looking piece.
That wheel can get "bent" and cause shifting issue.

I'm not saying that is the issue. I'm just bringing it up because that was a WILD case.
That guy had tried everything....
I think he even made a whole post on fixing it too.

I just can't find it.

Again, See if removing the shift cable and manually changing the gears makes a differene.

 

This might help.....

https://youtu.be/dnHbbzus21A

 

I'm gonna try some of these over the weekend. Neutral safety switch and such. Appreciate everything guys