I was looking at this on my Rotax cases the other day (They are getting ready to come back apart and do some touch ups before I start throwing bearings and trans in them ) and I wondered if you couldn't put a needle bearing the size of the shifting shaft to slide through and ride in? It looks like with some welding there would be plenty of room to do it, and would have to shift smoother and would have to work better since it wouldn't be riding right on the aluminum directly -any thoughts?