A new neutral safety switch was just installed in our 2008 Pontiac G6. Why would that have an affect on the mechanism which puts the car in reverse, drive, and park? The console arm is now extremely tight and harder to move, when trying to place the car in gear. It was not like that before. The repair shop indicated it should loosen up with use, but it doesn't make sense, as to why the install of the new switch would have thus type of affect.
Any help is appreciated.
It appears the neutral safety switch for your car is very much integrated with the shift mechanism.
(Note: Here are two different images of the same basic part. They are slightly different, depending upon how the shop decided to go with the replacement. Either way, the threaded rod in the first image is the part I'm suggesting might be over tightened. In the second image, the same rod would be used, but would be recycled from what was originally on the vehicle.)
The switch very well could just need "broken in" (worn in a little bit until it loosens up). A far more likely scenario is they have tightened it too much and something is dragging. I'd take it back to them and get them to adjust it.