[NW Hick]

The shifter on my 1641 looks a whole like yours, so in case it shares parts under the dash, here is my 2 cents:

I ws quie suprised when my shifter broke off in my hand one fine day when I was yarding logs. I was able to get home by shoving the broken part through the slot it used to go through and push the sheetmetal stub.

The shifter had been riveted with two rivits going through the spring steel/sheetmetal bracket (there are two springplates) and the potmetal shifter handle. The bottom half of the springplate is rivited to a flange on the horzontal shaft that connects into the rest of the brake/shifter linkage. Take out the battery and you can grind off and drill the rivits. You might get away with grinding the original part flat, redrill it and attach it with a pair of #10 machine screws and nuts but they will vibrate loose and you will find the shifter an inch too short, anyway. I built a forked-ended plate with round stock welded to it to take up the sideways thrust of the springplate as you move the shifter right & up for forward and left and down for reverse.

Knowing that parts don't just break for no reason, I pulled the cowl over the driveshaft and went through each connection in the linkage, cleaning away surface rust and greasing all moving parts. The result of this is that the tractor suddenly had twice as much power in reverse as it ever had since I bought the machine at 600 hours. The shifter no longer crept down from "6" to "4" when driving around. Everything just works better.

I like your new handle, but suggest that you go through your linkage and lubricate the joins because if yours binds, the longer handle will make the pot metal bottom break off easier.