Reinstalling shifter housing - 8T No 12 Grader

Hello All, I recently came into an 8t grader (1938 I believe) for it's scrap value. I was able to get the pony fired up and the diesel but when I went to grab a gear, it was difficult to land anywhere close to what the shift pattern represented. The culprit was 3 of the 4 bolts holding the shift rod? coming out of the shift housing were broke off. I removed the housing pulled the broken bolts and replaced. The issue I'm having is on the reinstall. With the forks hanging out, combined with the height of the shift rod(?) is making the geometry of putting this back on uncooperative. I have the upper part of the forks in the transmission, but can'tseem to make the "bend" to get the lower part of the forks to slide in.

Does anyone have any helpful hints or pro tips? I could pull out the shift rod along with the spacers but not sure about blindly sliding it back in. Any help would be deeply appreciated.

I should really keep my mouth shut on this as I know nothing.

But knowing Cat a bit. Is there locking mechanism to keep from slipping out of gear on this transmission like the crawlers? Would it help if the gear could move just a little to slip the fork past? If like a crawler the clutch needs to released to unlock.

But just a wild guess.

Hi Ray and thanks for the reply. I can't get that far. I can't get the lower half of the forks to slide into the trans housing. Here's a picture. I push it to the left up against the bearing then push it up but it bottoms out on the shifter base against the frame rail.