Sport Mounts installed, Now I can't find 4th & 5th Options

[scrz914]

In my quest to find better shifting on my '73 that I purchased recently, I bought some Sport mounts as both tranny mounts were cracked. I had just installed all new bushings including the two coupling bushings as well as new cone screws. I adjusted the linkage and had it at it's best shifting yet...still very vague tho'. I was looking forward to the new tranny mounts as that would tighten things up. With those installed I took it for a test drive and relized I had no 4th...something solid was keeping it from going in. Since the mounts were the only change, I decided it must be because they're not as thick as stock. It did look like the main shift rod was hitting the top of the hole of the engine bar. This made sense. So I dropped the tranny down alittle and added some spacers....No effect. Then I noticed that when I raised the engine bar with a jack, it kept going up and up. The PO had installed rubber mounts on the sides and had a solid bracket (like a '70 ,'71) on the engine. The rubber mounts were wasted. Amazing that the engine wasn't dragging on the ground. So I found some used tranny mounts laying around that weren't cracked and replaced what the PO had installed thinking that this would be the solution. Still couldn't find 4th. It still looks like the shift rod is hitting the engine bar. I tried the linkage adjustment as described in the Haynes manual with no luck. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif) WHAT GIVES? Why would installing new mounts cause such a problem?
I'm going to re-check all the bushings and screws again and as a long shot, check the tranny fluid. The other thing I thought of is the that the shift rod may have been broken and rewelded incorrectly so that the positioning is off.
If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate it. Also why would someone put tranny mounts on a side shifter? Should I change it back to stock?
Thanks for your help.