My team this year gave me the task of making a custom enclosure for the vex two speed ball shifter. We attempted to do this last year for our pto but failed to receive a critical dimension causing us to slip into neutral. We have just finished assembling our shifters this year (with the custom enclosure I made) and upon installing them, realized we're having the same issue. The small little shaft sitting inside the shifter mechanism when the piston is retracted, is causing the ball bearings to sit just on the edge of the chamfer.
When we rotate the wheel with our hand and no pressure is in the cylinder, the shifter slips into neutral. This is not the case when the shifter is in high gear (piston extended)
This proves to us that the standoffs the piston sits on is the wrong length. Does anyone here have any ideas on how to fix this or better yet, the proper spacing between the piston and the first gear?
Success isn't from winning nationals but from improving as a person or as team. Putting the minds together in order to get the job done is success. - Melissa Nute [more] 
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