I have a 96 taurus in overdrive when you come.to a stop it acts like it's in neutral and you have to play with the shifter to get it to go again but if you drive in regular (D) drive and not overdrive it drives just fine any ideas as what could be the problem

check for shifter adjustment as it appears to have slipped out of position

indicates a selection adjustment--loose , broken or loose switch

ask a local mechanic to have a look for you ,not sure whats wrong from your description but i hope you had this car given to you for free ,with a manual gearbox i might be lucky to get 500 euros for a car this old maybe 700 who knows if the right person comes along ,in the Uk this vehicle is popular with the ethnic majority for taxing but again a manual ,auto this vehicle in the UK is worth a max of 200 uk pounds ,with a dodgy gearbox its scrap

If both stopped working at the same time, then im sure its in the shifter itself. The cable may need to be adjusted or replaced.
Please rate me.

wo wo, any major repairs under the body recently?
If u have active warranty then pls stop by the pontiac service centre asap.

it could be one of the following ,

Transmission shifter cable misbehaving,
or
the transmission it self is failing to lock ur given command.

You may have two problems here.
Neutral safety switch (for starting problems)
Shifter cable is the other.

it sounds like you need your shifter cable adjusted or replaced or you may have a major motor mount problem that when you decel and acel you are rocking that cable out of postion. but i think it will just take a small adjustment. good luck

That would be your neutral park switch is bad or broken. If the shifter linkage is not aligned with the neutral park switch it will not work properly. Located on drivers side on top of Trans.

Something wrong with the Overdrive.Is it a sensor or a control module.Sounds like it might sounds like it gos worse after you hooked it up.Did you just buy the car?

try a trans fluss if that dosnt work then your bands on the trans or going bad. or if could be your computer is going bad but most likly you just have some junk in your fluid.