Ok, don't panic, I love the shifter. I hope this post will help someone else.

I bought this shifter used. It is the new version with the billet lower box.

I watched the install videos on the MGW web site. Seemed pretty straight forward. Installed the shifter using the supplied alignment tool.

Piece of cake right? Nope. I had no reverse. All the other gears worked but I could not get it to go into reverse for love or money.

Ok pull the console out and take another look.

Check Corvette Forum for possible solutions. Found a thread talking about the pinch collar not being tight enough. Thanks guys!

I carefully inspected the pinch collar coupling and sure enough when I moved the shifter from side to side I could see the shaft rotate in the collar. I thought I had that thing super tight the first time. And the fact that there is a slot in the shaft for bolt clearance makes you think that it is a pretty tight fit, but apparently not. I moved the shifter as far as it would go towards the drivers side of the car and cranked down on the pinch collar bolt until I was sure it was going to strip or break it, this fixed the problem.

Now she shifts like butter!

Keep in mind the shaft and the pinch collar are factory parts. A pretty lousy coupling design in my opinion.

 

Glad you got it worked out. I somehow managed to not get the alignment perfect my first attempt and it would pop out of first gear. Did it again and apparently paid more attention to the alignment tool/box part and all worked out great.

Yeah it's a little scary getting those torx bolts super tight. I put some blue loctite on mine to make sure I wouldn't have to tighten them again down the road.