Dakota Sport Club Cab AWD won't shift out of Park

From : fearless fred

Q: help!!! my 2001 dakota sport club cab awd wont shift out of park. noticed a few times recently that the column shift handle seemed a bit hard to move the odd time. this morning on a friends level driveway when i went to leave i couldnt move the column shift out of the park position. since i was also blocking his vehicle in his driveway i finally crawled under the dakota and popped the shift linkage off of the transmission lever moved this lever by hand andwe pushed it out of his driveway. im told that there is a solenoid somewhere in the column that releases the shift lever from a signal from the brake pedal brake lights are working fine. any troubleshooting/repair help on this greatly appreciated. thanks in advance. fred .