I've got an 00' Ranger that I just did a transmission on yesterday. My truck has never let me go down to 1st gear but I always figured it was something to do with the shift linkage adjustment. Yesterday, when attaching and adjusting the linkage, I realized it's hitting a hard stop before it can reach 1st, somewhere halfway between "2" and "1" on the dashboard. The transmission itself is able to shift into 1st gear but the linkage just won't reach far enough out to do it from the cab.
I initially tore into the dashboard and dropped the steering column to find a little gear selector block which has "gates" for each setting on the dash. It sort of looks like 2 flights of stairs facing opposite directions with an arm that hits up against them to keep you in that gear. I removed this piece and found that the shift lever still will not go down to first gear on my dash, although it seems like it can go higher up than normal, about one whole letter-space above the "P" setting. It's definitely nothing to do with the shifter cable since I disconnected it at the dash. Does anyone know what I have to do to fix my shifter? Is there some rotational adjustment I can tweak to move the thing down a letter? I'm probably going to pull the column itself sometime this week to try and fix the selector unless it's something I can do from under the dash

Thanks