904 shifting issues with the motor OUT

This is a long story, but that's because I want to be as detailed as possible in hopes that someone can point me in the right direction.

I rebuilt my 318 LA and it's ready to go in, so I was in the process of moving my 71 Scamp into the garage. Back when I pulled the engine, I drained all fluids including the transmission fluid (I'm not sure why, I'm new to this). The car has been rolled a few times with the motor out with no problems, but the last time I had slight trouble getting to shift into park. The car was born a column shift, but somebody before me converted it to a console shift.

My driveway is at a slight incline.

So, when I attempted to shift into neutral in order to push it into the garage, the shifter wouldn't catch on any of the gears. I felt some strange resistance, then 2 subtle clicks when I got down towards 2nd and 1st. Going back up towards park, same thing with the resistance and clicks.

I went underneath and was able to manipulate the linkage through all gears, and with one wheel in the air (I have an open rear) I could BARELY spin it. I mean, I had to bear hug it...and even then it was incredibly tight. With both wheels in the air, they spin freely with no resistance. I had a helper manipulate the shifter while I watched the linkage, and the pivot point where the shift rod meets the linkage was very sloppy. I was able to hold it while he shifted, and it tightened up, but still the same problem.

I had no issues until I moved it the last time into the driveway. Hopefully there's a transmission guru out there who might have an idea of where I went wrong.