I have a bonafied mystery on my hands.

I ordered all the available shifter bushings from Phil for a 87 300SDL.

I tore everything down, and started replacing them. I did the ones in the shifter above the floorboard.

Now the problem is the first one outside the car. It mounts into the flat metal plate of the shift lever (hard to describe, but easy if you've been there.) This is the bushing that most of the play is in. It's the rear one on the rod that connects to the AT.

Now the ONLY one that Phil has listed is a plastic part MB # 155 992 03 10

I put this part into the shifter lever and there is a TON of play. Not around the shaft to the plastic, that fits tight. But the bushing itself isn't large enough for the hole in the flat metal of the shifter arm that comes down vertical from the hump in the car.

The part that came off was more of a red color, it was almost like it was some sort of fiber reinforced rubber.

The car isn't here with me at the moment. I can inspect the removed part (glad I saved it) later to see if I can glean a part number.. but i'm not hopefull, it was pretty far gone.

Ideas? Wild guesses?

JP

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1985 300SD
2001 Toyota Tundra - soon to be replaced with diesel truck
2006 Honda CRV