Thanks to the brillance of fellow enthusiast Richard Mix, we now have the capability of a kink free shift lever crimp. It duplicates the BMW 8 series shift lever crimp (dimension wise) with tool marks that are difficult to find. Although I had a pin type crimp that worked, I was looking for a nicer (subtle) look. Another mission accomplished. Richard is on a roll. The stock BMW shift lever is glued at the lower half of the outer shell. The upper half of the outer shell floats. The inner rod floats at the lower half. The upper half of the inner rod is glued. I assume this is by design for isolation reasons. If you crimp the lower half of the shell it eliminates the float and also the isolation. BMW chose to do this on their 8 series shift levers. If you really want to eliminate the float you could also crimp the upper part or glue the port holes.