I will have to look for a quick way to bypass the safety switches so if it happens again I can start it in gear. I sure don't like putting that much pressure on the shift lever.
Jim, if you can set and hold the tractor in place with the brake, the tension on the shift lever should relieve itself pretty quickly. You might also try moving your HST pedals to their limits in an effort to relieve the internal pressures of the HST. However, as you found out, any backpressure on the transmission will surely cause problems shifting to neutral.
Of course, the shifting to neutral is the gear portion of the transmission and not the HST. The gear portion is trying to backpump through the HST and that should relieve itself if you can set the brakes and hold the tractor. Even if the tractor slides a bit after you set the brakes, with the wheels locked, the rotating pressure should be relieved.
The one exception is that if you are in 4wd, you have no brakes on the front wheels. If the brakes can't hold the tractor, continued rolling will transmit torque from the front wheels. At that point, you have a problem of not being able to shift out of 4WD and not being able to shift the range lever. All you can do is bump the range lever and try to get it to neutral.
The transmission safety switch is an easy one to bypass if you want to add a switch. Shorting the switch sends a "neutral" signal. The older seats used to also be easy to bypass, but when they moved the switch inside the seat, it changed the circuit a bit to make it a little harder.
EDIT: BTW, I hate the position of our differential lock. I think CNH put it there so you wouldn't accidently step on it, but you have to put your heel back there and push down. When I put my heel back that far, my toe wants to go down and my heel rise up. It's a very unatural position.
