Difficulty adjusting tail shifter: lots of side to side play, ball and cage are worn, any new ideas? Options

[Prospectfarms]

Besides converting to side shift?

All experts say to put the tranny in 2nd or 3rd, put the gear shifter correspondingly in 2nd or 3rd, and tighten the coupling. Doing that doesn't get me very close on the side to side adjustment. In fact I've spent several hours attempting to dial it in and no dice.

If I can hit 4'th gear, I'm over too far for 1st and reverse. If I adjust accordingly, I can get 1'st and reverse, 2nd, 3rd and 5th, but can't hit 4th. It just seems like I've got too much side to side play in the shift linkage to easily find that sweet spot where I can get 4th and everything else. With all that side play it seems as though if I do get it it will be purely by trial and error and luck.

No sign of broken clutch tube. I don't believe it's transmission related because it shifted into all the gears before I "fixed" it. When I replaced all the bushings including the shifter cup, and cleaned up the linkage I saw that the ball and cage in back is worn.

1. Can the front to back adjustment be misadjusted such that 2n'd, 3rd and 5th are available while 4th is not?
2. No grinding, but I just remembered that the clutch disengages at 2/3rd travel. In other words it engages at the first 1/3 of clutch pedal release. Could a loose clutch cable be keeping me from getting 4th gear?
3. Any cool tricks for dealing with a worn linkage in back (flat spots on the ball, worn sides on the cage)?
4. Should I just keep fiddling with it and quit whining?