[mattfranklin]

Got it in! After about 20 tries. Had to do it with the shifter out so it wouldn't get blocked by collisions with the dash. Got the reverse fork position set up beforehand: halfway into reverse. Even with the front rims (no tires) on the garage floor there was still a slight tilt to the tranny that made the reverse gear want to slide into neutral. A big blob of grease slowed it down a lot and held it in the right place, halfway into reverse. I'm talking BIG BLOB. Maybe half to three quarters of a cup in volume.

The biggest problem I had was that, as I wrestled the cover in around the floor and firewall, it wanted to push the reverse fork fully toward the "in reverse" position.

My two main tricks were lowering the cover in pointing at 1:30 or 2:00 and dropping the reverse fork inside the box until the front edge of the cover cleared the firewall and then rotating it to high noon before the final drop. Then, tipping the front slightly down to engage with the 3-4 slider and then lowering the rear until it engaged the 1-2 slider. At that point it hung up about an inch above the case. Then I reached in through the top receiver hole (where the shifter normally fits) with a long screwdriver and slowly moved the reverse rail into neutral. At that point the cover dropped perfectly into the case.

I actually think I may have gotten it right on the 2nd try, but I was doubting myself that it could be so easy and even with the clutch pushed in I could not turn the yoke, so I thought I was locked in two gears at the same time. (My problem was the clutch was not yet adjusted to completely disengage; so it fooled me.) It took my another 18 tries to get it right *and* convince myself that it was right.