lutztd

PHIL confirmed your analysis....complete assembly no longer available but can be rebuilt with parts that ARE available......

My concern is the following: DO I REPLACE BUSHINGS AND LINKAGE to transmission BEFORE rebuilding shifter to INSURE that this is not the root cause of the problem, or do I go with my mechanic's opinion that the SHIFTER ITSELF is shot and needs replacement?

the bushings are very large and kind of a pain to install, but since they are large, when they wear out they afford a ton of play in the shifter rods. put it up on ramps or jackstands, block the wheels really good and put it in neutral. on the underside of the shifter there are holes in the three arms you can stick a shaft through. I use a drill bit from my set but I dont know off hand the size, should be around 3/8. it will go through the 3 arms and a channel on either side that is part of the shifter body. this is your set point. Now see if the shift rods have play, they should not move at all, or just a little bit, make sure it is not just the shifter arm moving, sometimes I have to turn the drill bit to make sure it is not in a flute. If your bushings are worn the rods will be able to be moved quite a bit, maybe to the point of actually partially engaging a gear. If thats the case then it may just be bushings.

on some PNP cars I have seen the bushings nearly cut in half. on these cars I find the shift lever is usually bent to the point it either wont come up to shift to reverse or it wont go down to engage anything but reverse. this was from trying to push it far enough to get it into gear with the reduced travel of the rod because of the worn bushings.

if your shift rods are tight, no play and your shifter handle will still allow up and down motion to engage reverse and forward gears, then the slop is in the shifter and it will need to be rebuilt

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1982 300CD Turbo (Otis, "ups & downs") parts for sale
2003 TJ with Hemi (to go anywhere, quickly) sold
2001 Excursion Powerstroke (to go dependably)
1970 Mustang 428SCJ (to go fast)
1962 Corvette LS1 (to go in style)
2001 Schwinn Grape Krate 10spd (if all else fails)

To amplify a bit on what lutzTD said:

1)There are 3 big rubber bushings on the ends of the arms close to the tranny
2) There are smaller bushings at the shifter ends of the arms
3) There are bushings at either end of the short shaft on the selector (that sits in the tunnel)

They all need to be fairly tight. I have rebuilt my shifter using found materials for #2 and #3. The bushings are available from MB or Phil, if you want to use those. The #1 bushings are available from many sources. It's really not a big job and when done, really improves the responsiveness of the car.

As far as what to do first- well, we can't tell you that from here. I would suggest you pull the shifter out of the tunnel and give it a good look from the bottom. The selector "keys" should be all together on the shaft. To do this you need to get under there and release the back ends of the rods from the selectors just under the shifter. Then pull the boot off and remove 4 10mm bolts. Should take you less than half an hour to get to this point.

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