Hi Bob,
My apologies, I had replied to you personally off-list but apparently the message got snagged somewhere in the web.
We see this once in a while - if the engine is not well grounded to the chassis/battery, when the starter is energized it looks for the next-best ground, which is usually the shift or park cable, the speedo cable, or even the throttle cable. Where there is an instant cable lock-up, this is almost always the case.
Add in the intermittent start problem you had before the cable froze, and I'm pretty confident that this was the case. I'd take the cable out of the transmission, that should tell the story.
Steve
Bob <64ragtop@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Apr 15 07:47PM -0500
Thanks for the pictures, Rich. My 64ragtop has been waiting for me to
get to work on the sudden lockup of the pushbuttons. I'd been having
intermittent NO START events, but working the pushbuttons cleared the
problem several times. I just figured adjusting the shift cable would
fix it, like several others have reported with neutral safety switch
issues. Then one day, I started the car and none of the pushbuttons
would work. No problem with the park lever, but that's a whole 'nother
area.