Spacer is easy to replace or use a heater hose and cut to size but use some marine grade grease on the shaft to quit it down further.Also replace the sift linkage with heim joints to have a smooth shifting and easy to find Neutral and this will be last time you have to deal with this crappy design.

 

Thanks Dawg. Thats the exact info I was looking for.
The rear lever is pretty tight. Alot tighter than the front one. Can both of those bushings be pulled/pushed out without the use of an arbor press? If I'm reading FSM properly ( 6-25 ) I need to pull the the inner primary off to press them out and replace them with new ones. Do you have any "tricks of the trade" you could share?

I wish I would have found the noise last week. I just had to have the stator replaced on Friday and it would have been alot easier to do it then. Typical luck.

 

It can be done without removing the primary. I've seen it done with the use of a punch or the like. You can measure the ID of the hole, less the bushing and then get a piece of metal rod/dowel from Home Depot and drive it out or rig a two jaw puller