The parts I'm talking about are the shift and selector rod and the control rod. The small universal joint that connects the two. What keeps happening is the two sections that hold the universal joint (pivot point of the two pieces) keep letting one or two needle bearing caps come out of the holes. The section is supposed to pressed together. The first time put all the needle bearings back in and pressed the caps back in position. The second time i did the same then welded the caps in place. This time, the caps stayed in place and the universal joint slipped out of the caps. The control rod and the shift/selector rod have two forks that fit together around the u joint. The problem is the material that the two rods are made out of is semi soft/ low grade steel. It bends easily in other words. So the forked ends are flexing apart under aggressive shifting, letting the u joint body slip out of the caps. I haven't looked inside the trans to see what the rest of the shift control rod looks like so I don't know if i can fab up a whole rod. I was just trying to think of a way to increase the rigidity of the stock setup so it would not let the forks spread apart. The problem is that is a pivot point and needs to keep the same clearances in the joint as to not hinder shifting.
