had a buddy put my shifter in, he knows his ****, the shifter has about 1-2 inches of up and down play, everything else is ok, did i get a bad one or is this a characteristic of hurst
You'd better go under and check the nuts and bushings. Hope they're all there. If he took the old one out, followed the directions (which are not the least bit hard) and put the Hurst in, then I don't know how he could've made a mistake.
Getting that much movement sounds "unpossible" as bart Simpson would say. Basically the rear attaches with a clamp and the front by a bolt. As above, I assume you transposed all the necessary bushings and nodule from the end of the shifter onto the new part.