now i see what was missing with my shifter:
the lowest plate with the hole in it is missing on mine,
i copied the original style with steel bars and it now works fine
i just made an L-shape where the shifter rides against when jou are in 1st or second gear;
if you pull the handle for reverse, you pull the small disk over the L-shape so you can shift in reverse.
now that the plate is well positioned i can weld the plate to the base
easy
cheers, Peter