Thread both ends of the tubing using a 3/8-24 UNF thread tap. There's an easy fix - just make yourself a lever extension - if you study old photos of cops with hand shift Pans ans Shovels, they sometimes did exactly that.ДЇind yourself some stainless or chrome tubing the same diameter as the shift lever, and a short length of 3/8-24 threaded stud, maybe 1' long.Д¬ut the tubing to the extension length you require. The stock lever length is too short for me too Buster - I'm 6' 2' and it's like I have to move my whole upper body just to shift gears!

The cast shifter cam is too long to fit in the older top, so isn't interchangeable. Shovelhead hand shift parts from 1966 until early 1979.Д¬omparison shot of the older Knuck and Pan type hand shift top (left), and the late 1976 to early 1979 type hand shift top. Parts diagram from the factory parts catalog. To my thinking, there should be less chance of false neutrals, as the cast cam lobes are more positive than the small detents on the older cams. The shift pattern is still exactly the same as the older hand shift tops - I fitted the shift lever so that it faces downwards, and forward in first gear, which will equate to the hand shift lever by the tank being back in first gear, forward in fourth, which will suit the stock Shovelhead notched shifter gate, part 33789-66.

I've still got a Knuckle hand shift top and cam stashed away, but thought I'd try the 1976-1979 version, by removing the ratchet mechanism, and fitting a hand shift lever and shaft instead, part 34448-51 - all the other parts are normal foot shift items, including the shifter cam, shifter gear, etc. Some bean-counter must have realised they could streamline production though, so from late 1976 until early 1979 the factory started using normal foot shift ratchet transmission tops for their optional hand shift models - they just left the ratchet off! It was also threaded for a neutral switch. With the first Shovelhead in 1966, Harley used a new version of the old hand shift top, part 34802-65, which was basically the same as the older type, but it used the new longer cast shifter lobed cam, same as the foot shift model, part 34019-73. They fit right on to any 4-speed transmission case right up to early 1979, when the 'turret top' was introduced. In the past I've used Knucklehead and Panhead hand shift tops, with the older type steel shifter cam, which had small indents for a small steel ball bearing plunger to locate the various gears and neutral positions. Now that Morag has her own Sportster, I've decided to go back to a factory Shovelhead hand shift and rocker foot clutch.

Harley transmission shift lever