Change to shift instead of reduce

[Adam Smalin]

I have another thread but here is a simple version of my problem

My text input is
a.b c.d
What I would like is
varname varname
My grammar is
%glr-parser
//...
mainLoop:
      mainElement            %dprec 5
    | mainLoop mainElement    %dprec 4
mainElement:
      '$' VarName    %dprec 6    { printf("varname\n"); }
    | VAR             %dprec 3    { printf("var\n"); }
    | Token         %dprec 2    { printf("token\n"); }

Token: '.'            %dprec 1
VarName: VAR         %dprec 7
    | VarName '.' VAR %dprec 8

The conflict file shows
    6 mainElement: '$' VarName .  [$end, VAR, '.', '$', '\n', ';']
   11 VarName: VarName . '.' VAR

    '.'  shift, and go to state 18

    '.'       [reduce using rule 6 (mainElement)]
    $default  reduce using rule 6 (mainElement)

Now I see $default  reduce. I'd like it to shift. I threw in a bunch of
precedence hoping something would trigger a shift instead of a reduce but
no. What can I do?