260E stick shift blues..

[06 K 0020]

ok, I'm so sick and tired of these rubbery, imprecise, long as hell MB manual transmissions. replaced the mechanism and all bushings with new ones, still no help. is there a way to make the shift knob more precise with shorter and easier throws? any short shifter kits?

plus my reverse sometimes requires a second clutch, which is in the first attempt it doesn't get into gear, then i take it to neutral and release the clucth and try the reverse again. this tranny drives me nuts.