[x-bird]

I know what you're wondering about dan. set up correctly you'd get full clutch withdraw to engage, then the rate of releasing the lever would control slip. if you need to feather the clutch while in gear, partial lever movement would do that. It's the way my semi-auto works off the lever right now, i can bump the lever to slip the clutch while giving it some throttle if i need to dump some revs on it.

The thing that needs worked around is that you've gotta move the clutch full travel, then the gear shift its final amount all with the same stroke.
can't overdrive the clutch or clutch cable.
A new idea to spring load the cable connection came to me the other day while scrapping an engine. Mentally i've been designeing this setup for a few years, so i've got lots of ideas on how to put it together.

Latest i've been mulling over is the idea of using a valve spring and a valve. Seems the most effective.
Cable ends need to have a bolt-through loop end on them.
Thread the valve stem.
Weld a washer on one end of a piece of tubing that's larger than the valve and spring.
Drop the spring and valve in the tube with the threaded end protruding.
Connect that to the cable with a slotted-hole thread-on clevis.
drill a hole for a pivot stud through the other end of the tube.
The setup needs two of these cable/spring rigs.
One going forward with the cable then looping back and one going straight back.
The slotted clevis is for when the shift is going the opposite direction --the slack cable won't move, the connector bolt going through the clevis will travel in the slot.
The cables would join together at the other end to a single cable to active either a cable clutch setup or a pivot lever to drive the clutch hyd. cyl rod.

The trick of it comes down to picking a spring that's strong enough to not compress much while it engages the clutch but then compresses enough without breaking the cable once full clutch travel is reached and the lever keeps applying force to make the gear shift