[Ford of France]

Changing out the input is pretty easy. Recently I did one on a box that had a damaged input. It took all of about five minutes to complete. You don't need to drop the entire cluster to the bottom of the case. If you can drop that end of the cluster down a quarter of an inch, you can remove the input without any trouble. Just take it slow and easy.

The extended bushing idea is not particularly a good one. I have seen those fail over time. If it does, you run the risk of taking out the input as well as the 4th. gear cluster I know that some people use it as a short cut, but it is advisable to swap out the correct input.