I was driving normally when I went to shift to 3rd... Much to my surprise the shifter wasnt attached to anything. After pulling off to the side of the road I popped the shifter back into its hole and drove home carefully. Once home I discovered that I can just pull up on the shifter and it comes off. What did I break this time?? G52 transmission.

 

what does your factory service manual say? I would check there first

 

It looks similar to the R151, so I'm going to give you my 2 cents. The area in yellow (B) should have to prongs in area A (reddish) that when you insert B, have to be pushed down against the spring you see hidden behind that collar, then latched and twisted to engage those two prongs labelled A inside the top of your transmission. In other words, it looks like you're missing the metal parts that latch your shift lever in place to those two prongs inside the tranny housing.

 

Yeah, what RobD said then go here...

http://www.marlincrawler.com/htm/tra...rans_parts.htm

 

I did the Marlincrawler shifter seat upgrade last summer so I'm just going off what I remember the parts looking like when I removed and cleaned the shifter.
The cup around your shifter should have to be pushed down and twisted to kinda snap in to the prongs on your tranny......maybe I'm wrong but it looks like that cup may have the tabs broken off.....there has to be some pics showing what a good one looks like here somewhere.
Try doing a "shifter seat replacement" search on here or google.

If I'm right you better hope that the broken off tabs aren't in the tranny or they will definitely have to be removed......you don't want metal parts grinding away in there!

P.S. check this out, looking at your pic and these pics it looks like I'm right....sorry,so,sorry http://www.brian894x4.com/Shifter.html

 

This is how yours should look.....

 

The arm just sits in the cup. The shifter is attached to the cover not the trans. I have never had them out of the cover before but there must be a clip or something.

 

Are there any aftermarket shifters for these trucks? I tried welding some clips onto the cup but it didnt turn out too well. The clearances are so tight that i could barely get it back on. The shifter wont randomly fall off now, but it also doesnt return to center and feels kinda funky when shifting. I checked a couple of junkyards but could only find 2wd models and the shifters arent the same

 

from the pics your shifter is broke time to look around for a used one