97 e420 722.6 in 2 gears at once!!

[Gemsbeme]

Help
I bought a 97 e420 with 132k on it.
very nice ride.
thought I got an excellent buy at 2500, but now not so sure.
Drove it a couple of weeks and was fine, until it suddenly felt like it was going into forward and reverse at the same time.
thankfully I was going slow.
pulled over and put into neutral, then it would coast, but when I tried drive it felt like forward and reverse togeather again.
turned engine off waited a bit then restarted and found I was in second gear only (limp mode).
took it to an indy to check it out (60.00) and they said it was probably the conductor board and wanted $1100.00 to replace it and couldn't guarantee that was all of the problem.
did some research and ended up getting a factory conductor board (new) and also the connector plug, gasket and filter, all for about 150.00 plus a case of shell 134 fluid for about 90.00 and did it in about 3 hours of my time.
went to a different indy to reset the codes and 60 bucks later found out that it did the same problem on the test drive after the reset.
started out fine then felt like it went into forward and reverse at the same time.
after a turn off and restart it was back in limp mode.
my money ran out till a couple of paydays go by so I could not pay for a couple of hours at 97.00 each at this point.

anyone have a thought.

again 132k on 722.6 trans fluid was clean, not burnt, no debris in pan.
thanks in advance.
Gemsbeme