A833 Four Speed Gets Stuck in Reverse

Wait what? 40,000 ways? You think I'm kidding right? There are actually more ways than that. IIRC there are 3 levers and 4 shims plus the assembled shift mech,totaling 8 pieces. So to assemble it, you pick a part and lay it in the housing, then you pick another part, and so on. So for the first piece you have eight choices, then seven, and six and so on. Doing the math then; there are 8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1=40320 different possible ways to assemble it.
Some of them however are intuitive, and the assembler would have to not be very bright to mix them up. Like the two short levers and the shift mech. If you call that one choice,with two choices for where the levers go; then you have (2)x5x4x3x2x1= 240 different ways left.
But if you realize that two of the shims only fit in one location each and only orient in one direction, that changes the total number of choices from 8 to 6, and so now it looks like this; (2)x3x2x1=12 different ways left.
There is one piece in there that only fits in one location, anyone can see that, but it fits two ways so then it looks like this; (2)x2x1x2=10 different ways.
Of course the shift mech itself can orient in two directions, as can the levers, so that comes to 40320 x2x2x2=322,560 different possible ways, gross; and 10x2x2x2=80 net.
I'll tell you what, the first time I ever took one of those apart, it was getting a little frustrating before I finally got it. I highly recommend anyone contemplating this that they take pictures.
Those shifters are remarkably resistant to dust water and dirt, even gravel.
There are only two or three parts in there that can make trouble; namely the shift mech........... with the reverse lock-out in it, and the center spacer.The rest will last practically forever