key getting stuck in the ignition

I replaced my stock shifter with an aftermarket Autotechnica shift knob. one of the ones that pushes straight down with no button, similar to the razo RA94 that i know some people have. recently ive been having trouble with the ignition lock not releasing the key. hitting the shifter down and letting it pop back up usually fixes the problem, gettin tired of having to do that, so i took it all apart to see what the problem is, turns out the rod that you push down to release the shifter isnt coming all the way back up sometimes. I dont know a whole lot about how all that stuff works down there, anyone know what id be able to do to make sure it comes back up 100% of the time?

Sounds like you are missing a spring from the stock shifter.

even with all the shift knobs off and the mechanism working by itself, the rod would only pop all the way back up half the time, ive had the shift knob installed for about 2 months now, i just started having this problem in the last few weeks. i tried adjusting the cable that keeps tension on the little blue piece, and that helped, but i once i came out of park i couldnt get back into park, so i loosened it up just a pinch and the problem got worse, so i kept messing with it until i got it back to about how it was to start with, im pretty sure that is my culprit, anyone know exactly how to adjust it? or do i just need to mess around with it, i saw a few other threads that talked about a similar problem that suggested adjusting that cable, but none of them said how to properly do it, i just tightened and loosened the nuts that were there to move it back and forth, but didnt know what it was actually doing in terms of the igniton/shifter

***upon looking through my big box of "stuff thats not in the VX anymore but i should keep in case" i was looking at the stock shifter and found a spring that i dont remember being in there, so i suppose this weekend ill be taking the console apart yet again to see how i can make it fit back in tehre with my new shifter, it looks like the spring is made to push on the cap that went into the stock shifter, which doesnt fit with my new shifter