Eliminating that last tiny bit of shifter play

[treed2@u.washington.edu (T. Reed)]

Hey list,

A couple weeks ago I replaced the last of my original shift linkage
pieces - the plastic bearing assembly under the shifter itself.

Now my shifting feels solid going in and out of gear, but there is still
a fair amount of side to side and forward and back play both in and out of
gear. With the shift boot off, I can see that there are three pieces to
the bearing assembly:

The Stick - the metal rod going up that you screw your shift knob on to

The Ball - the metal rod goes through this plastic ball, which acts as a
           smooth pivot point for the rod.

The Cup - the ball sits inside the plastic cup, which bolts to the car
          through the metal bearing case.

Now, there is no play between the ball and cup, which is where it was
before (and what led me to replace the whole assembly to the tune of $35).

However, the stick wiggles around inside the ball. This is where 90% of
my play is coming from.

Has anyone been able to solidify their shift linkage completely by
tightening up this specific spot somehow? I'm wondering if maybe filling
the ball with hard epoxy would work.. (but obviously its not coming apart
after that so I hate to take that route)

Any suggestions other than that?

Thanks,

-Toby