Sry, but I forgot to tell you... if the vehicle is in park, and the rod is hooked up to the tranny, it wont move unless you turn the key to the first detent. It's the safety lock for the steering. So you might not have a problem with the rod, but you need to hook the rod back up and put the key into the ignition and turn it to the first stop (dont start the car..lol) and then try shifting the tranny from the tranny again. Also since you have the shift cable off see if it slides in and out freely, if not, then that is probably your problem.