I had my transmission replaced & when I got it back it kept popping out of reverse. That saga is here:trani? clutch? drive shaft? 1983 240-manual

I was told that my shifter "bushing" needed replaced. (note the singular! I have since learned it's not singular)

I'm going to give as much detail here as I can think of so please ignore what's not important. Note that when I got the car back(late January) it was popping out of reverse(couple of days), then I would hold it in reverse & it was good for a few days, but then it would just grind(I only did this a couple of times before I just quit trying b/c I didn't want to ruin reverse) so I stopped parking it anywhere where I needed to back up.

I finally had a friend help me with checking things out today. Without getting into the actual shifter, because he wanted to be sure the issue wasn't really with my transmission first, we disconnected the shifting rod from the shifting lever. What we discovered is that the rod will push it into reverse but the shifter won't because the rod appears to be to short. We adjusted the end of the rod that connects to the shift lever as far out as it will go & still need, at least, another inch.

I still have my old transmission in my trunk(I knew I hadn't found a spot for it yet for a reason) & he checked how far the transmission lever moves on the old one versus the new one & the difference is huge. The old transmission reverse lever moves 1 3/4" & the new one moves 3"(both approximate, but very close). 1-2 & 3-4 work just fine with its current transmission(and with the old one).

I had motor mounts & a new clutch put in when the trans was put in.

With the shifter rod hooked up my shifter won't even touch the silver button that turns the reverse lights on(I didn't check any of that while the shift rod was disconnected because we didn't realize that issue until later). We also noticed that the shift lever is hitting the back of the square hole that it comes through to connect to the rod. If it weren't hitting that it might have enough room to move all the way to engage reverse.

SO...what's up with this transmission & its reverse??? Or, is there something else that's REALLY causing this problem that I'm just not realizing?