Should my 1996 legacy have a lock for the shifter? I can shift without pressing the brake and shift into any gear without the ignition unlocked. Is that normal???

No not normal. You should have to step on the brake. Pull the little cover and look at the front of the shifter that's were the solenoid is.

Coffee and Coke usually does this mechanisim in. It all drips on the solenoid.

 

Do you here a clikc of any kind when you press the brake pedal and push in the selector lock button on the shifter?

If its like my 92 legacy, the default position is locked, and I would have to press the manual unlock button at the front of the base because the solenoid failed. I used wire to tie the lock back because of this. Maybe this is something a previous owner did due to the solenoid dying, I dont think a 96 has the same manual unlock so maybe this was rigged out of necessity.

The trim on the console only takes a minute to pull up and you can check to see if the manual unlock has been modified.

 

Lift the center arm rest lid, remove two screws. Pull the rear section cover off, then pull the front section cover off. You'll want the gear selector in something like D or 3. Turn the cover 90 degrees and it will slip right over the shift handle.

It should lock, maybe try pushing it forward a little more firmly into park. Sometimes if the cable has been stretched from forcing it into the rarely used lower gears it might not be moving far enough forward to lock.

 

In park do you hear a click when you press the brake? If not the solenoid might be hung up or somehow messed up.

 

Personally I hate the interlock. The only thing it has done for me is make it so I can't get it out of park when the thing hangs up from coke or whatever got spilled in there. So I have a little screwdriver shoved down in there on all of mine. Didn't that interlock start when people were driving their Audi's off piers back in the 80's?