I wonder if it would work better if you leave the transmission mount the same, and remove the reverser from the shifter.
If you remove the ball stud from the blue circle, and mount it at the red circle, then the movement is reversed.
Of course it will require a new mount for the cable stay, and the cable will be a bit higher in the console... so it has some drawbacks, but it gets rid of the slop that the reverser will introduce.
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Thats a lot of extra work for not a lot of reward, theres far more slop in the shifter (can be worked out) and tunnel cover (again can be worked out, have a plan) than what the reversing cranks introduce. Between all the plastic and the rubber isolator bushings, the OEM shifter assembly feels like a cheap toy compared to the current setup and theres several areas for improvement left.
I wanted to come up with a solution that anyone can install, that's not going to require cutting welding etc. Might not be possible but it all depends on how much time I want to spend on it.
Creaking is mainly from the tunnel cover, little from the spring and shifter ball to brass bushing (some more break in and/or different lube might be needed).
Plan is to get this working with the test plate, then final version will be 1/2" aluminum, with the correct counter bores for the springs to stay in place, currently using 6-32 bolts threaded through the bottom of the plate to locate and hold the springs in place. The shifter only had 3 springs but spots for 5, JSATX might want to check and see how many springs they put in yours. If they only put 3 you could add a few more for more resistance.
With a little bit of R&D I think I could come up with a way to have the Ktuned shifter connect to the bottom of the crank, eliminating the reversing motion. Angle is getting pretty steep from the shifter to the crank so a custom connecting rod might be needed but not hard to do.
A quick idea I came up with, needs refinement, reversing cranks are not accurate, need to think through it some more and see if anyone here sees a reason why it wont work before getting more accurate measurement. Clearance might be tight on the left/right crank but nothing a grinder cant fix. Or might be able to flip the left/right crank so the ball faces inside instead of out that would give a little more room. Will have to see if the cable can attach on that side.