Not Good - Weird Electrical Problem
 

I've got a 94 850 wagon (non turbo) that has 164,000 miles on it. It's had a short somewhere from the day I've bought it and if I either don't drive it every few days, or disconnect the battery, the battery will die. No biggie, but now there's another bigger problem that's popped up and not sure if it's related to the battery draining issue or not. What's going on is the shifter will get stuck in park, and I'll have to use the button to get it out, but then the speedometer, odometer, and occasionally the turn signals won't work! And when it does this the ABS light is on. It did this once a couple months ago, then again a week ago. Both times I shut it off, restarted, and all was fine. Today the gremlin is back and won't go away. Not sure what it is or what to do about it, any ideas??

Mine has the problem with the shifter lock. When you start it, you have to turn the key back a little bit. The return spring is weak so it stays in that too-far-forward position. When you crank it back, watch the dash lights, the ABS will go off when it's in the right position.

That is the spring in the ignition switch. The video above will show you how to replace it.

Oh, cool. Thanks. I had just learned to live with it. I always get nervous tinkering with the ignition switch for some reason. I have the manual dexterity of a moose wearing boxing gloves, but I might give it a go.

Thanks, again.

It's not very expensive and it's not that hard even if you do have moose hands but take the gloves off ;)