three things:
1. You probably should not work with linked components this early in your design process as it makes the design workflow unnecessarily complicated. It has the advantage of creating the correct component / assembly structure in your design file, provide that correct structure is maintained in the assemblies you insert. You can perfect fine create a complete assembly in a single Fusion 360 file as Fusion 360 does not use separate file types for assemblies and components.
You may want to review Fusion 360's R.U.L.E #1
2. The reason out joints did not work is because the structure in your "shifter Lever" assembly was incorrect. The main body was still a body, not a component. There should not be any bodies in the top level of an assembly, just components.
It should not look like this:
—+— Assembly
|—+—Component
|— Sketch
|— Body
|—+—Component
|— Sketch
|— Body
|—+—Component
|— Sketch
|— Body
or like this
—+— Assembly
|—+—sub-assembly
|—+—Component
|— Sketch
|— Body
|—+—Component
|— Sketch
|— Body
|—+—sub-assembly
|—+—Component
|— Sketch
|— Body
|—+—Component
|— Sketch
|— Body
3. When the assembly structure is fixed, one of the joints will create a failure. that is because for a revolute joint to work, the two implicit joint origins you pick then creating the joint have to be in the same plane. That can indicate a design problem, or if it does not then the over constrained condition can be removed by turing that revolute joint into a cylindrical joint.