97 neon no park

On the park linkage rod there is a spring that allows the rod to go into position for park when the cogs are not lined up yet.
Then when the gear turns just a bit and the cogs line up the spring engages the parking pawl.
On mopars mostly, I have seen the part that moves because of the spring hammer itself past the end of the shaft and fall off in the pan.
This is probably what the problem is.
You should find the knob in the pan along with what looks like a small peice of tubing.
The little peice that looks like tubing is what stops the peice that the spring moves and was crimped on the end of the park rod by the factory.
Just put it back together and weld/braze the little peice of tube back on flush with the end of the shaft.
Fixed forever.

I tried to find a picture of it, but couldn't.
I'll be pretty obvious once the pan is off.