Let me chime in here with some info that I hadn't put in the book. The shifter lever stub has two contact points for moving the 1st/reverse fork and the 2nd/high fork. The L/R fork is moved by the round ball tip on the very bottom of the stud. This will normally have two flat spots on each side (approx. 1/4" dia) which are not pertinent to the shifting action. I rarely see excessive wear on the tip.
The 2nd/high contact point is the round stump that sticks out of the stub (about 2" up from the bottom tip). I do sometimes see wear here. That "stump" should have a diameter of 1/2". You will often see wear on the front and rear sides of this diameter. These are where this part of the lever shoves the 2nd/high fork from front to rear, thus the wear.
Last but not least, you should look at each fork.....to the "slot" where the above-mentioned contact points ride when shifting. The slots in each fork should be approx. 1/2" wide (with a few thousandths of extra space). You will often see similar wear occurring here.
With wear on the "stump" and comparable wear on the "slot" you would have considerable movement of your shifter lever without ANY actual movement of the shifter fork. The end result (particularly with the 2nd/high shift) is that you have moved your lever all the way as far as the shift rails & detents allow......BUT you have not moved the 2nd/high synchro sleeve into full contact with the synchro teeth on second gear or high gear.
The solution is to replace the lever and/or fork to get back to the full dimensions needed. In today's resto world, that isn't generally possible. Our new 91A-7230 shifter fork is very close to production, so replacing that is a reality soon. A new lever is pretty much out. Solve either problem by welding some metal back into the worn areas, and carefully grinding the weld back to the original dimensions.
