Brass shifter bushing

#1

Chuck Baader turned me on to the beauty of a shifter that was so tight it felt like it was being run thru gates. It took me a couple days to get used to it, but now slop in the shifter drives me crazy. This is how to make the shifter’s position “certain” instead of “ambiguous”.

In order to tighten up the shifter Chuck pulled my plastic bushing out and fabricated a new bushing out of some kind of hard non-metallic material the name of which I didn’t catch. Maybe a nylon or a fiberglass? I was distracted by thinking how cool it was to be able to make stuff on a lathe. But after a couple dozen track days I could see that it’s inner diameter was starting to open up, maybe because I was beating on it too hard, I dunno. So I got to thinking how I could make a harder bushing, and my machine shop said brass was the way to go.

Order the brass bushing and remove your shifter from the car, it’s just one nut and two clips. Take the bushing, pivot pin, and shifter to your local machine shop and have them remove a little material from the bushing’s inner and outer surfaces to make it fit nice and snug. The bushing is part # SS-1224-16 from Applied Industrial Technologies

The bushing was ~$10 shipped and the machining was $20. If your machine shop wants too much, send it all to my machine shop.

The pic makes the bushing look kinda beat up, but that’s some kind of reflection weirdism. It’s surfaces are fine.

[attachment=1371]2011-03-01_16-26-54_18.jpg[/attachment]

#2

As much as I want to buy the AKG race shifter, I just can’t justify it. Thanks for the cost savings tip.

#3

No reason you can’t put the bushing in an OEM shifter mechanism.

#4

I think eliminating slop in the shift bracket shown in Ranger’s photo is key. I didn’t use a brass bushing on the front of the bracket where it mounts to the trans, as Ranger did, I just replaced the original bushing there. But, what I also did was fabricate a new bushing to go on the back end of the shifter bracket shown in Ranger’s photo. The tail end of the shift bracket presses through a rubber bushing in a metal plate that bolts to the trans tunnel. (See attached photo). The rubber bushing on my car was mush. You can the part in the attached photo for about $35, but it is still a rubber bushing.

Instead, I burned the old rubber bushing out of the plate and fabricated a new bushing out of urethane. I had a cylindrical piece of urethane about an inch in diameter. The tech at my local shop gave it to me. I cut a piece off about an inch long and drilled a hole through the center the size of the tail piece on the shift bracket. Then I ran a bolt through the hole to use as a mandrel and chucked it in my drill press so I could turn down the diameter of the urethane cylinder until it would just press into the hole in the metal bracket. The urethane is much stiffer than the rubber and eliminated all the slop in the shifter bracket.

At the recommendation of the tech at my local shop, I also replaced the shift knuckle and rod with E36 parts. The E36 doesn’t have some of the plastic washers that the E30 uses, and that wear out, so there is a metal to metal connection where the shift rod goes through the knuckle and shift lever.

The result is great. My shifter feels almost like a rifle bolt as it works through the gears.

#5

Randy that sounds like a great idea to modify the rear shifter bracket. When I did my shifter I replaced everything with stock parts except for the front bushings. Instead of brass as Ranger used, I used Delrin which also made the shifter anything but sloppy. I also used a Z3 shifter, which I don’t know if its legal for se30, but makes a nice short throw with really good engagement. Next step is modifying that rear bracket, good tip.

#6

BW has a race shifter that eliminates the rod that my bushing went into. That means it eliminates both my issue and Randy’s issue. It fastens to the trans tunnel. It’s also tall so the shifter ends up near the steering wheel. Pricey but darn nice. Jason Crist has a write up on it at bf.c.

#7

I didn’t remember it until this weekend when I reinstalled my transmission after (hopefully) fixing a leaky seal, but I replaced the front bushing with a Delrin bushing too.

Unfortunately, I didn’t notice I had removed the bushing from the shifter housing until after I had already installed the new guibo and the driveshaft. It is much harder to install that bushing with the guibo and driveshaft attached to the trans. :frowning:

#8

Is there any upgrade to replace the white plastic cup that the shifter sits in? I replaced mine with a new OEM part when i installed the UUC race shifter and DSSR. Now the plastic cup turns in the socket and gets loose and the shifter will come straight up if pulled. I rotated it back in place but it doesn’t want to stay. Maybe i can figure out how to get a set screw into the side of the bracket???

#9

The shifter is one of the few things that is open to whatever you want to run. I’m using a full Autosolutions SSK, and I love it.

#10

Ranger,

Do you have the full BW or AKG race shifter, then? What is your overall impression? Worth the $300-$375 upgrade from the standard short-shifter? I already have the UUC DSSR and delrin carrier bushings (brass would be even better, I imagine).

Thanks