As the title suggests I'm getting some weird cranking behaviour in my newly acquired xj6.

I bought the car a couple weeks ago, it had sat for a few years and wouldnt run, got it running by bypassing the pump relay (an unrelated issue I believe) but now it is behaving strangely when cranking.

If the car is in park (red light on P) as soon as I turn the key to ignition, but not crank, the car starts cranking. However when i put it in neutral i can turn the ignition on in position II and the turn further to crank the engine.

As well as this, if I get it running whilst in neutral and try to change to drive I can hear the starter motor try to engage and obviously make a very unhappy grinding noise.

When running the gearbox light is on but i dont know how to run a diagnostic on these (my 93 toyota has its own diagnostic system so not sure if these may aswell)

I've read up about a couple things that may or may not cause similar symptoms such as the gear selector switch but not entirely sure where to start. I'm no electrician but happy to give anything a punt

Thanks in advance

FYI car is a 1992 XJ6 4.0, base model i believe.