Big bone trans! Good man!
There should be an alignment hole when the shifter is dead nuts neutral ( it's a technical term ). Put a pin through the hole. Personally I use a drift pin or punch. Remove all the linkage and set all the dogs to neutral on the trans.
Put your bushings in and connect your rods. I had to heat and bend a few places to clear things and align the rods. I also made sure the shifter was aligned as in, "on the same plane". This may take a washer or two in select areas.
It takes patience and several curse words to get it right. You can practice now as you read this. Start cursing.
Hope this helps.
