That's another great tech tip John. I did the same thing to mine. I havn't collected all the parts to install it yet, but it has a short throw shifter.
It's not that hard to do. You do need a drill press to get the hole in the center of the shaft. But that's it for specisl tools.
I used two pieces of 1/2" aluminum (I couldn't find a 1" piece). You can cut the pieces with a good jig saw or a sawsall. I JB welded them to gether and drilled the holes using the base plate of the shifter for a pattern. For the large hole, I used a hole saw (usually used in wood working). I got a cheap set from Harbor Freight for 6 bucks. It took awhile to drill out the big hole but it worked fine. I figured the hole saw would be toast after I finished but it faired pretty good.
The point of this long rant is that you don't need to be a machinist to do this modification. It's easy to do and I think worth the effort.
George
