C4 shift pattern, backwards?

I'm using a pan fill C4 form a 77 lincoln versailles in the 65 F100 I'm restoring. I cranked the truck up for the first time over the weekend, and the tranny was in gear(neutral safety switch not hooked up yet). So, I went under the truck to make sure the shift lever on the tranny was in the forward most position, which should have been Park(PRND21). It was indeed in the forward most position, so I started the engine again, and sure nuff, its still in gear. Anyway, the tranny uses what I consider to be a backwards shift pattern, the forward position is in fact 1st, and the rearward position is Park(12DNRP). Note that the lincoln used a cable setup rather than a hard linkage from the column to the tranny.

What's different inside the tranny to cause this? Can I just flip the lever on the tranny upside down and be ok, or is it keyed so it can only go one way?


[addsig]

The trannies installed in floor shift applications have the lever on the outside of the tranny that goes up while column shift application trannies' lever goes down.
IIRC you can reverse just the outside portion of the lever. I think the shift shaft that goes into the tranny has two flat spots on the threaded part so you can pull the nut, reverse the lever and put the nut back on. ("I think" being the operative phrase...)
[addsig]