I am gearing up for and engine buildup and tranny swap for my mercury capri, I blew the enine a while back so me and my brother in law are gonna build it up a decent little 302 to mess around with untill I can afford the 351 I want (probably be a while). however, at the same time I am going to be swapping in a doug nash 4+1 (same thing as richmonds 5 speed) in place of the c4. I have pretty much everything sorted out, except that since the nash' uses an external rail shifter like the old toploaders, the shift handle will be offset towards the drivers side.

while I will probably build my own and just put a decent **** on it (will all be under a shift boot) hurst does make shift handles that are offset to one side or the other. the shifter on the nash is 2 3/4" away from the center line of the tranny. I would really like to keep the shifter as close to the factory location but me and my dad have been discussing the "eggbeater" effect when an offset is used, causing the shifter to rise and fall when it is moved side to side. but when we have seen this kind of modification done it was a bit more extreme than 2.75", however it was also in trucks with shifter that were over two feet long compared to eight to ten inches. has anybody used this little of an offset and can shed a little light as to what it will "feel" like?

also, my shifter is a used (but in decent shape) hurst comp plus. I am already planning on dissasembling and cleaning, and adjusting when its on the car, but does anybody know of ways to farther improve on this shifter? I was thinking about some heim joints for the shift rods, but not sure if it will make enough of a difference (its "stock" rods aren't worn down) to justify and dont really know of much else I could do.

BTW, I snagged the fresh nash, centerforce clutch, and shifter out of a wrecked 69 mach for just over 1k. worth it over a t5 swap...