Gear Shifting Adjustments After Side Shift Conversion, Who needs 5th gear anyway? Options

[BeatNavy]

Ok, got my 2056 and a refreshed side shifter into my '72. Managed to the get the Fuel Injection and Ignition bits sorted out (after dealing with a wonky CHT circuit (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif) ). After the 1.7L and a tail shifter I was pretty excited to try the 2056 and side shift. I used the Tangerine firewall bushing and installed the Tangerine shift adjuster up at the selector. Dr Evil refreshed my gear stack, but I assembled the tranny package.

After firing her up and taking her for a ride, I noticed I only had R, 2nd, and 4th. A quick review of Chris' always excellent notes/instructions for the firewall bushing show that if you don't have 1st, 3rd, and 5th the shift coupler at the firewall may be hitting the firewall and require some grinding and moving the shift rod forward (or in extreme cases moving the tranny forward). Well, I did some grinding with it still hooked up using a dremel. After a couple of tries I could sort of get 1st and 3rd, although they wanted to pop out. I think I've gone about as far as I can. In the process, I managed to find 1st gear somewhat reliably, and after working with the selector adjustment tool I managed to find 3rd. Still no 5th nor hint of it.

Everything seems REALLY biased toward the driver's side, and it takes real effort (muscle force) pushing the selector to the left to get the gears. If I move it the 1/R combo more toward center I lose 3rd gear.

I love how the side shifter feels solid (much less slop), but it would be swell to have 5th gear and not have to force everything as much as I do. What are your thoughts in terms of issues or next steps?

1. I assembled the tranny -- did I not get the gear stack in neutral when assembling the console? That was my initial thought when I couldn't find so many gears, but now I have 5 out of 6. Is this still a possibility?

2. Do I need to grind the coupler down even MORE or move the tranny forward (not sure exactly how to do that)? There is probably room, but I thought I was actually starting to run out of shift rod.

3. Could this be related to the fact that I still feel the front of my engine is low by about an inch (I've confirmed that I have late-style engine mounts at this point)? I know the linkage is moving freely through the engine bar and not hitting anything.

4. Another variable is the clutch tube -- when I repaired it last year after it broke off, I often felt like it was sometimes or somehow interfering with the shift selector. Could that be messing me up?

Thanks for any and all help.