I installed an Axial Flow Engineering short shift lever from Rick's.

The first issue I encountered was its reluctance to be pushed down to go into reverse. It did finally give in.

I found that there is a lot of room to the right of fifth gear. It is like there is no gate to limit travel. Then, yesterday I actually went past sixth as though I was trying to shift into reverse. This makes a very bad noise.

Now I realize the the shifter is stuck down. It still goes through all the gears but it also will go into reverse without pushing down.

Does anyone have an idea what is going on here?

 

Yes, you have it in backwards Undo the screws lift up on the shifter and turn it 180* and reinstall

 

The shifter has a spline on one side that prevents it from going in backwards. I did just try to turn it to see if it might go in that way but it won't.