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The reason the SSK can develop play is likely due to a couple areas that need to be addressed on the OE cradle and linkage. These pics illustrate the mods I did to mine over the winter to completely eliminate all play using the stock cradle and SSK. The major one was to drill out the white plastic pin that holds the white triangle shaped lever linkage and install a bolt w/nylock nut. This got rid of all the slop left in the shifter movement. The top yellow arrow pointing downward represents the only other interface where play can exist which is where the shifter ball rides inside the triangle linkage. I got lucky as the new ball from the el cheapo SSK kit was a tight zero tolerance fit. The arrow pointing left to right is pointing to the shim stock I added to the adjustable bushings. I could still detect just a hair of play between the delrin insert and aluminum bushing here so I decided to shim it. I consider Numeric cables a must when doing any shifter upgrade. Hope this helps.
Shifter is butter smooth now and absolutely zero play...