Well, I have a 2001 2200 with the 5-speed Getrag, and I stumbled across something that has me confused. I was reading on here somewhere that there is a lock on reverse, so if you want to shift into reverse you have to pull up on the little plastic piece that slides up and down under the leather part of the knob. Well, I don't have a lock, and I can just shift into reverse normally, however...if I do pull up that little slide (whatever it is) it feels like it shifts into a seperate reverse gear. The gate seems to be moved farther to the right, and it feels entirely different than just shifting into reverse (position of the knob, and it doesnt have the same feel going into the gate). I assume this is normal, but what purpose does it serve?

If you can shift into reverse without pulling up on that lifter, you've likely got misaligned shifter rods.

you most likely wore a slot in the plastic part of the shifter , from not using the lock out

Am I going to run into any problems if I continue to use the shifter normally? It feels normal to shift into reverse and I've discovered today that if I use the lifter and put it in reverse, and then push it to the left a little the lifter pops back down to normal and the shifter sits where it does if you dont use the lifter. Weird...whoever owned the car before me definitely did something to it.

is this only for the getrag trans?

Yeah, it's only for the Getrag.

Just pop off the boot to see how the lifter works. It's possible that someone just forced it in and broke the plastic on either the shifter base or the lifter. Probably no big deal.

And no, you won't do any damage. When you take the boot off, you'll see how it works. It's just a safety feature.