So, ferrying my brothers around on a tour of the city, and we stop for iced coffees. I back the car in, put it in park, and they jump out. Turn the car off.

Not sure what made me think to turn the car on again, but went to start the car...nothing. No cranking, not starting. Lights, radios, windows, A/C: all fully functional.

I thought this might be another dreaded matter of the park shift lock, the car not registering that the car is placed in either Park or Neutral. The gear shift was stuck in Park, and wouldn't come out.

I called AAA, and while I waited for the tow truck, searched this forum rabidly for tips. Strangely, it seems like all the topics related to this end abruptly with essentially no follow up, OR the problem mysteriously solves itself.

Which, if course, is exactly what happened to me. The tow driver showed up, banged away at the starter solenoid, then popped the gear lever out of park by pushing the horizontal chrome pin to the left of the J-gate forward (towards the radio). Still no crank whatosoever when in neutral. He hooked the Jag up with chains, and was winching the car onto the flatbed as I sat in the driver's seat steering the car on. For whatever reason, I thought since the car was rolling, I'd try the key. It fires like a champ. Car is unhooked, and I drive away with a neurosis now about the car sitting there dead.

Can any long-timer give me a rundown of what, precisely the park shift lock problem is, and how it's solved? My gear shift DID register a red P. I wiggled like a madman to see if I was perhaps not hitting the microswitch. And I cannot say for certain that ANYTHING happened magical while the car was inching forward while on winch power. Please help square the circle, as this appears to be a very, VERY common problem for which the answer doesn't appear to be in one place! Thank you!

N.B.: I have started the car four times today, all without incident. Yes, I'm tempting fate.

 

Could have been the fuel pump cut off switch. The reset button is found under the carpet on the right side of the passenger footwell, assuming you're American.

 

OK, some squareness to the circle from my meanderings with this fiasco.

Sometimes it would not come out of "P" when stomping on the brake pedal. The solenoid would "click" so it appeared to be doing its thing. Every logical test I did improved nothing, even the illogical achieved little, so I removed the solenoid and its linkage. No more stuck in "P". GREAT.

Mine never had the "no start" issue, but the daughters XJ40 did. Same mechanicals under the timber dressing panel. I removed the switch pack from the RH side of the J gate housing, and cleaned the slide etc with "electrical contact cleaner", and also elongated the mounting holes very slightly. Refitted the switch pack and adjusted the fore and aft position so as to have the "P" lit up in the XJ40 digital display. This also corrected the appearance of the "D" symbol, which is required for the XJ40 cruise control to actually work.

I consequently did exactly the same with the X300 switch pack at the same time as the solenoid removal. I was rather amazed at the gunk that washed out of that switch pack.

The official name for that switch pack, as I call it, is a "Linear switch".

My suggestion would be to do the same with your switch.

The electrical section of the ignition could also be playing up, as is well documented with the earlier cars.

 

Question: would the fuel pump cutoff switch result in no crank, or would it result in cranking, but not turning over? I had the former condition, but thank you nonetheless. That seems like a totally reasonable and intuitive place to look for a fuel pump cutoff switch.

The next time I am fussing with the shifter, I will be sure to remove the elements you referenced and give them a good scrubdown. As it is, no-one in the history of automatic transmissions is treating their shifter with the kind of gentle touch, soothing tones, and fear/trepidation that I am.