1990 Ford tempo will not start unless I wiggle the shifter when in park

Remove the plastic cover on the column, there will be a nut and adjustment arm in there you can tighten. With the plastic cover off wiggle the shifter you'll see the bracket moving. " it shouldn't"

the shifter wont move, or moves to park but park does not work?
try to be clear.
are you on flat ground?
are you against a curb
did you wiggle the steering and turn the key and wiggle the shifter to park? at once.

there is thing called park lock out but works moving from P/N to gears active, R/D/L. usually going to N/P is no problem. unless cables are rusty.

Check and make sure the bell housing on the transmission isn't broke and trying to separate from the engine. Shifter shouldn't move while cranking unless transmission itself is moving.

Could be a faulty brake light switch, or the solenoid for the shifter lock.
You may be able to shift it out of park if you unlock the steering wheel but not turn the key to On.

need a starter. the starter is bad

try turning the key as far back as you can before it shuts off. that works for mine.

You may need a park/neutral safety switchir have yours adjusted. Make sure the shifter lever goes all the way in to park first and see if wiggling and jiggling it makes a difference

your neutral safety switch has died,, it will only work in park or neutral,, replace it

try your local library and they can make copies for you

if you have a 1.3L 4cyl these were famous for the idle solenoid on the intake manifold located close to wind shield drivers side two wire plug and 2 10mm bolts it is round looks like a cap on it cant miss it!!use EFI cleaner spray it out good this opens and closes sometimes carbon plugs them up you should get a lot of black carbon out when spraying it out this should help hope it did. John