The tree of three

Alright, I've looked everywhere to prevent myself from annoying you guys with questions, but I have failed. Vehicle: 63 Valiant Signet, 170cid, A903. Got the car in pieces, so I have no idea what this thing drove like prior to disassembly. I've built the engine, runs like a champ (I think) and replaced all of the tranny seals. Assembly time comes around, and I managed to figure out the Z bar clutch, and I hooked up the two shift rods to the tranny in the orientation specified by the manual. Go to shift via the column and only the 2/3 gear rod moves. The 1st/rev rod (which was replaced due to being bent) sits limp in its neutral position. I also have no idea what positions of the stick are what gears. Thank you for any help given, pictures will be posted as soon as I get off work.

As well as what halfafish mentioned, there are Detents, Lockout's, or Interlocks (people use different names for them)

They keep one shift fork from moving unless all the others for each gear are in neutral. (one not quite in neutral can stop another from moving)
I think the first thing I would do in your case is to remove all the rods from the trans and make sure all the levers for each gear move and engage a gear like they should.