Ok I have a 82 seca. I bought a rod from a 80~ model 400 but it must be from a sohc as its about 2" too short now I came up with solutions to my problem...
1- weld the bastard and smooth it up so it slides correctly.
2- take the first piece, place it in a lathe and then drill and thread the center at any suitable size , repeat for the shorter part and then find a bolt or similar and join the two with some loktite....
Now for the imagination to take charge, I saw a thing on YouTube about the power of friction, it was basically two metal parts in a metal lathe contraption that spun the two in opposite directions generating enough heat to fuse the two together. Now to me this seems possible but the only thing throwing me is that both parts are different metals, ones aluminium and ones a type of alloy. How reliable and reasonable would theses options be? If all else fails in gonna make the sucker out of stainless and sit pretty knowing I can't accidentally snap it.