It has become very difficult to get my car to shift out of park. I push the brake hard, but quite often to no avail. the # 6 fuse seems ok, so I need to find out what to do next. Is there something else I can check? What is the next step that I should take ?

make sure the brake lights work. the interlock relies on the brake light switch for power when the pedal's down. good luck, chuck.

Sounds like the shifter interlock solenoid is bad. The one in my 91 is horrible during the winter (I have to manually release it almost every time), but works about perfect now that it's hot here. If my wife drove my car on anything like a regular basis, I'd have fixed it long ago.
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1991 245, 61k miles, looking for a 5 speed 92-93 245 cheap.

Where is the interlock solinoid?

How do you manually release the shifter?

You manually release the shifter by sticking your finger into the slot in the shift bezel at the back of the slot. There's a little plastic tab that you push off to the side. There should be a marking on the bezel that points it out, but maybe it's worn off of yours.

As far as actually fixing it, I can't help. I know what the problem is, but I haven't been bothered enough to fix mine yet.
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1991 245, 61k miles, looking for a 5 speed 92-93 245 cheap.

Thanks cbolt, I think that tip solved the problem. This is my second 240 and I never new about this manual release. What a relief... Thanks again