The Shift rods slide in a Steel guide that has oil holes drilled in their length, the top shifter rod has bronze bushes at each end. I thought about the bending of the rods as well, they are made of Chrome moly and the tongues are made of stainless and at full travel they only stick out from the guide 15mm and they are 9/16" dia so I don't think there will be too much bending. I have no doubt there will be some teething issues with this first one, just hoping they will be minor. Bottom line is, its finished, it seems to work and it looks right which is a lot further than any other Transaxle build that I've seen on this site. As for the quality of the castings that will improve even more in the next ones as I will be fettling the pattern more to get an even better result and ***I'm going to address the concerns of the tongue length by moving the rails a little higher.****