Car dies when put in park after driving

I have a 1997 GT vert 4r70w, that has been a very reliable car thus far. However, I just replaced the stock (yes, stock) battery last week, and whether this problem is related to the new battery, I doubt, but am unsure.

Whenever I go out for a drive, when I arrive at my destination, I put the car into Park and it simply dies. Doesn't choke or struggle, RPMs just drop to 0. Does the same if you put it into Neutral after driving for a period of time.

However, once it has died, it will start right back up and idle happily in Park or Neutral for as long as I've allowed it. After it died, I've cut it back on, shifted to Park, Neutral, back to Drive, back to Park, etc... and it has been fine. BUT, each time that I go out for a drive, when I arrive at my destination, stop, and put it in Park, it will die before I can cut it off...

What gives??? Has anyone else had this problem? Honestly I have no clue what the problem might be, doesn't make sense, but hopefully someone else can shine some light onto the situation.

Dark Knight GT said:

Since the car is an automatic, I'm guessing it might have something to do with the manual lever position sensor. If it isn't functioning correctly, it may send the wrong singal to the computer and cause it to stall. Have you had the SES light to come on yet ? I seriously doubt it is related to the new battery. The only purpose the battery serves is to start the car and to be used for back up power in the event the alternator isn't able to power all the vehicle accessories at once by itself.

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No SES light until it dies, then on comes the typical SES light and check battery light.

The RPMs have always dipped for a second when shifting into park or neutral, so I'm thinking that it might have something to do with idler control? I know there's a way to tweak the idle on most vehicles, so perhaps that might work?

I think the RPMs are just dipping too far and the car is unable to recover, and just gives up the ghost. I went for a short ride this afternoon and it did the same thing when I put it into park, except it only dipped to about 150 RPM and then choked for a second, then recovered.

I'll look into the manual lever position sensor, though, I appreciate the insight.