That was the link I've been looking for for 2 weeks, thank you!

I did find a solution though. The donor shifter came apart fairly easy with a vise and a crowbar. Like a pickle fork with more leverage. After I got that one apart, the other one was easier to rig up. My shifter is a little different than the one in that post but the extension comes apart the same way.

I have a different extension to go onto the shifter post. More engineering.