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DIY: Remove slop from stock manual transmission shifter bushing

fabric8

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
Vegas
Disclaimer: the stock shifter bushings were designed to reduce NVH, provide a soft shifter feel and more importantly, to reduce or eliminate pressure to the selector fork (for people who don't know any better and rest their hands on the shifter). This is accomplished by creating voids in the bushing that provide some amount of float. It allows you put a little bit of pressure on the shifter without actually moving the lever. However, this translates to slop for enthusiasts.

If you are one that likes to rest your hand on the shifter, you should probably avoid doing this mod whether you choose to go my DIY route or go with aftermarket shifter bushings. And it may be worth your while to watch this video: https://youtu.be/_cbZlhduYJY and stop that bad habit.

There are products out there to replace the oem shifter bushing to get rid of the float/slop. But for those who want to try a DIY for next to nothing in cost, here's a video I made showing the slop before and after adding the shims to fill the voids on the oem shifter bushing. All 4 shims were a tight fit to ensure all the play is removed and the rubber is slighly compressed.

For the fore-aft voids, I simply used 2 spark plug tips which I hammered flattish. They fit perfectly tight into the voids. For the side voids, I used a piece of scrap glass nylon material from the spacers that come with RC propellers. Reach into your inner creativity and find something squarish in shape to fill those voids. Remember, it should fit tight and slightly compress the rubber to be most effective.

Shifting feels really great now and is crisp and positive. I'm looking forward to receiving and installing a short shift kit I have on order, but this mod alone is a significant and definiteley noticeable improvement over stock.

For those on the fence about it, or are considering buying one of those shifter bushing kits, you have nothing to lose by trying this. It literally takes a few minutes to do. I may tackle the side-to-side shift lever bushing next.

Anyway, here's the video: https://youtu.be/cgpmq4qwdlE
 
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