Homemade manual shifter?

[ridehonda400ex]

I am going to make a shifter for my truck. Its a 5 speed. I am not sure how to make it thread on to where the stock shifter does though. Should i take a trip to the junk yard and find a second shifter for my truck and cut the bottom part off with the threads inside? Or should I find a sleeve with threads or tap it? I am wanting to make it out of a metal chain and weld the links together to make a shifter. I have a NV3500 in my truck

[wilkin250r]

I'm not sure the exact truck and style you're looking at, because you didn't post any pictures or detail, so I'll advise on a general scenario. From what I've seen of the NV3500, it has a steel shaft that goes into an aluminum housing, and the whole thing bolts to the top of the transmission. I would go with your first suggestion, go to a junkyard and try to find a second shifter to hack apart, this would allow you to use your stock shift boot and everything that's attached to the floor, and then use the chain for everything above the shift boot.

Trust me, you're gonna want the shift boot in place, you'd be surprised at the amount of noise and crap that will come up through the floor without it.

[ridehonda400ex]

Sorry about that it is a 98 chevy 1500 rcsb. and yeah i want the boot and all that in place, i think it would look like chit without it. Looks like im gonna make a mad dash to the junk yard after work tomorrow!