Going on three days of stuck on a confounding problem. I hope tomorrow will not be like today and the day before rolling around in transmission fluid scratching my head in desperate, hopeless, pitiful agony hoping to the heavens above I at least figure out what's causing my car's problems. (1991 740 turbo wagon 4 cyl)

Car will move forward only. Park works. Neutral, I get forward. Reverse, I get forward. The shifter knob only goes as far down as 2, it will not go to 1. PRND21.

I had the lower valve body out of the transmission to replace the kickdown cable, and I might have moved the gear selector by hand I do not recall I've been under this car going on 9 weeks straight fixing various problems I inherited from the previous owner.

I can't understand how my shift linkage could be misaligned, as the car only starts when the shifter knob indicates P or N. So, I must be in P and N at those times, which means the linkage has to be synced correctly? Right?

I put the valve body back correctly absolutely I made diagrams of all my work, believe me I try to be very particular and organized.