Lights on the dash but no start.

[p38brickus]

Turn the key and all the lights come on. Turn to start and there's nothing at all. Bing bongs are saying trans fault.
A bit of history.
When I tow the van I put the gear lever in Sporto and use the gear lever manually. We've just come home from 3 months to Darwin and then across to QLD and down the coast. We did 15000kms on that trip.
Went to Canberra over the weekend towing the van. My wife has show horses and we went to watch a couple of her boys. It rained Thursday night (about 25mm) and when we left, I noticed the Sporto was working but no numbers on the dash telling me what gear I was in. I stopped, turned ignition off and when I restarted, all was good. Got home OK but Sunday morning this problem was apparent. Put the battery charger on all night Sunday, no go Monday morning. Jumper leads from another vehicle made no difference.
I'm no mechanic but I'm thinking maybe a sender switch like a P and N lockout.........maybe?
Help!

[Graeme]

Have you pulled it out of park into neutral to try it? Under the right rear corner of the gear selector there is a white tab that has to be held up or down, I can't remember, to allow the lever to be pulled out of park.

[p38brickus]

Thanks Graeme. I have tried that.

[Graeme]

If it is behaving as though trying to start whilst D or R is selected then I favour your suggestion.

[p38brickus]

Still no go. Auto elec thinks it's in the P-N-R area. He can get it started by quickly going from key off to start and it seems to over-ride the computer going through it's check cycle. Doesn't work every time so not reliable enough for a daily driver.

[p38brickus]

I've had a button fitted so I can start the car. Sometimes the cruise works, sometimes the Sporto numbers show on the dash. I've been told it's the inhibitor in the auto trans causing the problem. $3000 to fix. Thoughts?