Well I finally solved the mystery! After all my initial investigations, after looking at a blue jillion pictures, after talking to as many people as I could find that were willing to offer insight on shifters and how and where they are to be located in the car. After all my relentless pursuits at perfectionism I somehow located the shifter mounting bracket too far back in the car. Doing so threw off the geometry of the shifting arms and linkage causing as much havoc as possible.
After sitting through 5 softball games in two days for my 11 year daughter, and enjoying every one of them, cause I know this time only arrives once, I finally was able to spend 4 hours (from midnight until 4:00a.m.)removing the console and shifter, just to reinstall in the correct location by continuing moving it forward in the cab until all the indents hit perfectly.
Thanks to all for the input and a special thanks to Dutch for all the pics and causing me to back up and think about the problem being bigger than the shift lever. It is fixed and working like a champ. Now on the downside I now have every chrysler made shift lever known to man and a few extra linkages and other pieces too that I might use at a later date or will have for some other lost soul. Til next time have fun.
Ray,
