I'm looking for diagnosis opinions from those who may have experienced this. Hoping the final info will also help others in the future.

I'm fortunate to live only 30 minutes from Kirt Koeller at Auto Sports Unlimited. I've emailed them for their advice and will likely get what I need from them. If you need their info: www.autosportsunlimited.com; (800) 624-3876; email: info@asumi.org.

Car: 1994 530i, auto transmission (ZF 5HP18), 200,000+ miles.

Situation:
Recently finished a lot of engine and suspension work, including new engine and transmission mounts (both were quite bad). Following this, the transmission didn't lock into park properly. Made a rattle, "slow chatter" noise when shifted into Park with the engine running. Seemed to engage better when I would shift all the way to the lowest gear and then up to park.

Driving:
Take off was extremely sluggish in normal Drive. Switched to sport mode (4th gear instead of “D”) car seemed to run normally.

Following this, I changed the filter and fluid. I still experienced the sluggish take off and almost a stalling in 1st gear. Used sport mode and the car ran fine and the gears shifted smooth. Car was parked for 8-10 hours and when I started it and tried to shift into gear, it would not engage in Drive. The shifter would easily move from Park to the last gear, but would not engage in Drive. It would still engage in Reverse in the “R” position as well as now in the 2nd gear position, but would not engage in Drive in any gear. Park didn’t seem to grab and hold.