This applies to G,W and R series gearboxes with my "weapon of choice" here being in my Hilux.

So as I had a bit of time today and my newly acquired Hilux having a shifter like "Stirring a bowl of custard" I decided to pull it out and see if any of the parts that I have for the Surfs could be used to fix it.

Now in my "pile of sh!t" I just happened to have left over from a conversion a gear lever and top plate from a 95 series Prado complete with its nice leather knob. Now given that these are a rather long gearlever when compared to the original they are in effect a factory "short shifter" (well they are as given the length of the lever I'm pretty sure that no-ones arms are that long).

So for your "shopping list" what you need is this

Gearlever and top plate from a 95 series prado

Your original gearlever

Tube of sikaflex or similar

Hammer, cold chisel and either a soft faced hammer or block of wood, angle grinder with cut off disc or hacksaw

What you do is this...

Take the Prado gearlever and stick it in the vice then knock the top part off of it (you'll see the rubber bush inside as they're a 2 piece lever, your original should be too). do the same with your original.

Trim approx 50mm off of the bottom part of the Prado lever, now if your original has come off in one piece (which they usually don't hence the sikaflex) you may find that the bushes are of a different size, you can either rip the middle out of the bush or turn the Prado lever down to suit if you have a lathe, friendly machinist at your disposal or are a dab hand with a grinder (I did this bit). Now fill your original gear lever up with sikaflex and tap it onto the Prado bottom.

While everything sets take note of the orientation of the top plate on your box. Fit the Prado top plate in the same orientation as your original and fit the lever and you're done. Nice short slick shift with the lever angled slightly closer to the driver.

My cost $0 and an hour

Your cost? What ever the wreckers want for a Prado gearlever and top plate

Oh and your original gear lever boots and consoles fit as before as aside from the throw of the lever nothing really changes.

Sorry about the lack of photos. thought about that after the job was done