318 LA rebuild after losing a valve seat

Okay, another bump in the road. I’m getting ready to push the car into the garage so I can drop the motor in. It won’t shift into neutral, the shifter seems to kinda miss the proper stops But randomly clicks into maybe 2nd sometimes. I took a look at the shift linkage, this part seemed to be bound up. 96610330-B257-4198-8522-E833858B7382.jpeg219178BD-6F3D-4A10-B42E-70F4F0775788.jpeg 487A83A5-B665-42C0-BCEF-850EF6CB051B.jpeg

I removed this part, as I remember when I installed the headers last year that it wasn’t connected to anything, just swiveled inside a bushing. The car was born a column shift, somewhere along the way it was made a console shifter. 318D4492-4850-41FC-A750-53B68B00D148.jpeg

I’m still not able to shift into neutral (or into any gears, for that matter). Any ideas?