stupid shifter...

[ARCHINSTL]

Just got off the phone with the local Toyo dealer, they have every part to rebuild the shifter assy. That is for the snap ring ($6.65), seat bushing ($14.55), lower bushing ($5.14), and boot ($11.06) for a grand total of just over $39 including tax for all parts. He said it will take a couple days to have the parts ordered in. So it appears I will be paying Billion Toyota a visit in the near future

WOW on the prices...
From Butler Toy in Indy this Spring:
33555-16030 is $7.91---boot
33548-16010 is $3.69---bushing
33505-16010 is $10.40---seat
Total around $22, with no tax - not including the snap ring. Postage was a couple.
Tom M.

[dlb]

the shifter in the project car was really sloppy while the one in the parts car was good so i swapped them today but i still have a few questions.

here are the end bushings on the two shifters. in case you can't tell, the one on the right is sloppy one. the bushing is split and misshapen.



here's the cup bushing from the project car. the top edges are all worn away--nowhere near as bad as ron b.'s were, but worn out nonetheless.



this is the cup bushing from the parts car. it's in excellent shape.



now here's where i get confused. in my project car, the cavity where the shifter end sits in the shifter linkage was all dusty and dirty looking. i started scraping it with a screwdriver and wound up with a pile of rust and dust that i vacuumed out.



in the parts car though, this same cavity was filled with gear oil. the cavity has obviously been opened at some point though because it was really messily sealed with red RTV gasket stuff. i wonder if a previous owner just thought it a good idea to put oil in there too.



i read some threads here where people mentioned filling the trans with gear oil through this cavity--i think that's a bad idea but it got me asking myself whether there should be oil in there or not. oil in there doesn't make sense to me because it's at the very top of the trans, above the trans fill holes, and because the linkage shouldn't require so much lubrication. i figured some lithium grease would probably be good but i didn't put anything in it yet as i wanted to get a consensus first. thoughts?

[ARCHINSTL]

I had this thought back when I did Goldie's shifter bits renewal. I figgered if Toy meant it to be filled with gear oil, then it would have filled it with that (and made mention in the FSM/OM). I also figgered that oil might cause the bushing to deteriorate. So I used plumber's grease, available at any hardware store - it's silicone-based, so no petro content. It's on my list of to-do for '12, so I'm gonna renew it all over "down there."
Hopefully my boogered gasket will stand up to it one more time - I hate cutting new ones.
Tom M.

[Petros]

I do not think it is possible to fill the trans from the shift linkage compartment. Some cars you can, it is open to the gear box from the shift linkage area (my old Volvo comes to mind, and my RWD Datsun 510). It is far easier to just add from the shift lever hole than to crawl under the car, but in this case it does not get the gear lube where it should be. Perhaps a PO thought you could top up the trans this way.

I do think these parts should get some grease, the lithium grease or silicone based lube is not a bad idea. Doesn't the FSM say to put grease at the pivot points, bushings, etc.? I would clean it all out, spray corrosion inhibiting compound into the compartment (LPS, or similar), and than generously grease the contact points of all the linkage parts.