Vex Pro Ball Shifter Questions

[magnets]

I've been working on an off-season gearbox project, and I have a few questions about the vex pro ball shifter.

For my project, I'm designing a 2 speed, 3 CIM gearbox, with power takeoff. I've designed a few in the past, but they're all too heavy, so I decided to try with parts from a vex pro ball shifter. The three CIMs are set up to drive two separate ball shifter shafts. The first operates like it would in the normal gearbox, shifting the drive motors from high to low, and the second is only driven by one input gear, so the output from the shaft will only be connected when that input gear is selected.

I have three questions

1. Can I use the ball shifter shaft with 3 CIMs without it breaking?

2. We bought some ball shifters in the past, and I'm pretty sure that you can (by hand) move the shifting rod in between the two gears and get to a "neutral" gear, where no output happens. Is this correct, and would it be possible to spring load the shifting mechanism so that when there is no air the system, it returns to "neutral"?

3. Has anybody done something like this before with positive or negative results?