Let the car warm up like I always do, and shifted into reverse and I knew something was wrong. R never engaged, nor did anything else. When I moved the shift lever it felt like I wasn't actually moving anything in the transmission, like the linkage was broken. I'm assuming there's cables between what's in the center console and the tranny itself. Everything in the center console area looks fine, but I'll have to get underneath it later today to see whats up. I'm going to hit the repair book here after i get changed and do some searching around. I put the motor in the car, but paid someone to do the tranny so I wouldn't botch it up and waste a bunch of money. I therefore, am not sure what I'm looking for to fix. Any suggestions?

Fortunately the car is in front of the hangar owned by the mechanic who works on my plane, so access to tools won't be an issue.

 

Could be just that the cable bracket came loose at the transmission. Might be an easy fix.
http://shbox.com/trans/A4_trans_linkage.html

 

Thanks! Those pics will help a bunch. I'm off to bed and will tackle this later this afternoon. I'll post my findings.

 

All fixed.

The problem was the nylon ball socket that fits on the shift lever had come off. It wouldn't snap into place so I knew it would fall out again. The GM dealership didn't carry that nylon fitting, and I would have had to replace the entire cable, for 70 some dollars, which they didn't have in stock. So I pulled off the 15mm nut that holds the shift lever on and took a drill press to the center of the ball end. Tapped the hole and stuck a screw with a small lock washer, and a larger one to hold the nylon fitting in place. No binding, and looks like a good permanent fix. Thanks again shoebox.