Just today, the auto transmission on my '96 850R started acting strange. It wouldn't always go into neutral or reverse but went into drive, 3rd, and low just fine. When looking at the mechanism on top of the transmission itself while someone else went through each gear, the rod would rotate once just fine on the way down but on the way up from drive to neutral, nothing, neutral to reverse, nothing, and from reverse to park would rotate 3 clicks into the proper park position. This was the most common result, sometimes it would do different things like not going into park at all but it appears to be a physical issue, problem with the cable maybe? Any input would be greatly appreciated.

 

It sounds like you'll need to get under the car and check out the shifter to see if it's the cable that cracked or split or if it's the connection of the cable to shifter. If the cable cover cracked or split it might work ok when pulling but the cover of the cable might absorb some of the motion when pushing. Just a guess.

The pictures are NOT of an 850 but you get the idea of what might be happening.

 

Did you find the problem or