I would suggest Tig welding this part when your trans is apart.

Bummer. The infamous weak reverse gear. I Know I've been there before in a street baja of mine. Did that actually take your trans out? Usually the car will still perform for many miles when that happens providing you can put up with the constant horrific noise that the tranny will make. Also the fact that you no longer have reverse until you tear into the trans and flip the reverse idler over and your back in business.

When the bracket that holds the shift fork broke, the trans would not shift. They were able to go into the fill plug and shift it into second gear with a screw driver and that is where it stayed.

I haven't checked the Class 11 board in awhile and just came across this post. 5+ years ago while rebuilding a friends trans I found that same reverse bracket issue. It wasn't completely in 2 pieces yet, but 2 of the 4 welds started to seperate. Ever since then I weld the bracket. It is one of those small details that must be done when building a box correctly.

Also, note that this bracket is different in earlier boxes. I think in the early 70s they changed to this 2 piece bracket. While most parts are way better in the late boxes, this one isn't. Then in 74 or 75 they changed it again and added an additional wing which gives it some more support. The pic shows this with the welded bracket.

Scott, Thanks for the input about the later year part. We have welded ours so we should be good, but will keep an eye for for one of the later parts.
Jeff