Tranny stops dead -- Transmission Clutch Interlock Safety Switch Circuit Failure??
 

Just bought a used 1996 Eddie Bauer Explorer to put my fiancee and her son in for the rough winters up here.

The truck needed new front brakes (metal on metal sound was brutal), so I used 2nd and 1st gear on the auto tranny to decelerate for the few miles I have driven the thing so far.

Discovered that, on an intermittent basis, the truck will quickly come to a complete stop when I put it in 1st gear, and will only go forward if I step hard on the gas, and even then it acts as if I have the other foot on the brakes (but I sure don't).

If I put the truck in R, 2 or D, everything seems normal, and the truck seems to shift from 1 through 2, D and into O/D without event from a dead start if it is in D.

The O/D off light sometimes flashes when O/D has not been switched off, and this does not change if I hit the O/D switch on the end of the shift column.

Senior tech at Mr. Transmission did a scan on the truck with Auto Enginuity software setup and it came up with the following tranny-related errors:

P1800 Transmission Clutch Interlock Safety Switch Circuit Failure

P0781 1-2 shift

He did not recognize the P1800 error and seemed to think it was a software "error" or something meaningless

He tells me that the only way to diagnose the problem is to remove the tranny and check the problem out on the bench, but I am hoping this description sounds familiar to someone and that there actually is a switch hiding somewhere outside the tranny that I can actually replace, fix, or short in order to avoid the $$ on the tranny work.

Do you recognize these symptoms? Any ideas?