made my custom shift linkage....

okay strokerscamp, I used 1/2" Outside Diameter stainless tubing, with a thickness of .050 thousandths, and an inside diameter of .400 thousandths.

for the shifter mechanism side, I machined 3 stainless steel bolts down to the inside diameter of the tubing, slid them in and welded them together. the bolts were a 3/8-24 fine thread, (same threads as the factory shifter linkage adjusting swivels).

for the gear select operating lever side on the transmission, I threaded the tubing with the same 3/8-24 fine thread tap, and used that thread to locate a 3/8-24 nut, and welded it to the end of the tubing, and simply used a stainless steel 3/8-24 male heim joint available at fastenal, along with a stainless 3/8-24 jam nut to tighten the heim joint down...that should cover the linkage...

Also, I switched the operating levers around like you suggested and it worked better than i had before, but i still wasnt satisfied....with a little more adjusting and using a mix match set of operating levers, i was able to make everything shift smoothly and work like butter!

next time when i build this i will use the correct A-body operating lever, to make things less complicated. lol