Well after putting 1700 miles on my car since being road worthy I have been working on a number of punch list items. Reading this post motivated me to think about how my reverse has always been a workout. I finally took the pigtail loose on the reverse solenoid and was getting voltage when the key was turned on so I figured bad solenoid.
After some more digging I managed to get to the bolt holding it in and removed the entire solenoid I tested with the wire attached and the entire assembly hanging down and when the key was energized still no release of the pin.
I disconnected it and brought it out from under the car and as soon as I looked at it under good lighting I saw that one of the pins was bent over and not making contact. Woo Hoo I straightened it up reconnected and tested it and it worked.
Back in the car, reverse is now no effort, as it should be.
I am using the ecm and VSS signal for control with modified stock harness that I sent to Speartech.