4 speed clutch and trans linkage questions

I'm looking for some help from people familiar with 4 speeds.

I bought parts from Brewer's, Mancini and Year One. I spent about 10 hours on my tranny last weekend and don't feel like I got too far. The clutch fork I bought is a Mopar part and it's a shoddy piece of work. When I asked Brewers, they told me, "I am aware that the quality of those new forks is a bit off, they come from Mopar and the tooling is getting worse all the time."

I also spend too long installing new clips on the throwout bearing because the old clutch fork seemed sloppy. This was tough with the transmission in the car, but the new clips make my old clutch fork fit a lot better. I also bought the wrong clutch fork adjusting rod kit. My bad.

Can anyone help with the following questions I e-mailed to Brewer's? I'm looking to get as much insight on this as possible so I can get the car up and running properly.

Question 1- I bought item # LRS-B, Linkage rod set 64-9 with swivels, clip/washer package from you too and have some questions that relate to the rods.

My shifter was sloppy with the old control rods that were in the car. When I put the new control rods in, it's difficult to shift gears. Things seem very tight, almost like something is binding. However, I was under the car while someone else shifted but I didn't see rods binding. And it shifts smoothly when the control rods are disconnected. So I'm thinking it relates to the installation of my new rods, not something internal to the transmission.

Question 2- The geometry for the rod for 1st and 2nd doesn't seem right. I attached the rod to the lever on the transmission. Then I adjusted the swivel to attach the rod to the lever on the bottom of the shifter control mechanism. Unfortunately, the rod fits in slightly ****-eyed on the shifter side. Do you think this could be related to my question on the washers, the lever on the transmission, or the lever on my shifter control mechanism?

With all the problems I'm encountering, I'm wondering if the shifter control mechanism is the right one for my car.