Manual transmission help needed

[Tom W]

I am converting a 99 Ranger to electric. The transmission was fine. I pulled the shift lever and removed the transmission. I mounted the electric motor directly to the input shaft. The motor and transmission turn freely. I reinstalled the transmission and shift lever. The shift lever looks OK and the spring action to reverse feels normal but it will not go into any gear. There is no clutch. I think it must be something about how I installed the shift lever. There is a small spring loaded lever on the left side of the hole and I tried to move it to the rear when putting the lever in but it made no difference. Can someone please help me out?