UPDATE!!! We have liftoff! The problem was narrowed down to the cable from the shifter on the column. The issue is the cable was unable to pull the lever/plunger into the trans to make it go into forward gear. I must have heated the trans up with low oil levels and effective "glued" the plunger into reverse post blown hose. PB Blaster and a lot of tapping loosened it to the point I could manually pop it up and go forward without the cable connected. NOW - I reconnected the cable and it still will not move the trans shifting lever and plunger so for the interim, I am going to add a manual "pull" to put it into forward. The regular shifter allows it to go into reverse easy peasy. Thanks for your feedback all this time... If anyone has any rube goldberg fix suggestions or permanent ones, I am all ears.
One final note - as older back hoe owners seem to know, irony is prevalent in their operation (so I am told). I go the unit going in forward and reverse and was overjoyed. Then, as soon as I went to use the dipper, I blew its hydraulic hose. All I could do was laugh.
