shifter bushing replacement?

[Danbob]

Hey guys - quick question....

 

I am fixing my shifter slop tomorrow onmy 1995 legacy. I have saved the corresponding threads to doing this procedure, and have ordered the bushings and spring that I will need. My only question is this:

 

Do I need pin punches or not? I cant seem to find a straight answer to this question...like can I replace the bushings with the linkage still attached to the car or does it all ahve to be taken out and pulled apart? I have no pictures of the actual installation process because there are no photos with the thread that has the instructions.

 

Can someone help and just tell me what tools I will need to do this?

 

THANKS!!! - Dan

[Danbob]

Bumpers for me:banana:

[Danbob]

Someone knows....

[BigMattyD]

Yes, you need to remove the whole assembly, so pin punches are essential.

 

http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/showthread.php?t=39487

 

The link above has some info and pics. I don't have step by step pics, but some pretty good ones overall. You need to scroll down to the bottom to find the new location of tthe pics.

 

Matt

[Danbob]

uggh this is a ***************...I tried to do it without taking the pin out...doesn't work....how do I get a pin punch all the way up to that pin from under the car? doesn't seem like it is long enough....

 

If that thing were a screw instead of a pin...I'd have been done in a half hour! This thing is so simple and so easy to do yet getting that pin out makes it damn near imppossible.

[BigMattyD]

I had to insert the back end of the pin punch into a deep socket which I then put on an extension. Then I banged on that with a hammer. It took forever. I actually had to drill a recess into the end of the spring pin in order to give me a good "bite" on the pin. Before that, the pin punch would bounce of the pin with every blow of the hammer.

 

 

Be persistent. It may be a pain in the rump roast, but when you are done, it will have all been worth it.

 

Matt D.

[Danbob]

All I have to do is replace the two bushings on that piece where the pin is attached to....I don't technically need the whole assembly to come out of the car....I wish there was a way to unbolt the driveshaft and push it over and out of the way so I could just change the bushings and be done with it....It'd be so easy if I could just move the driveshaft like a quarter inch....oh well I guess my night will be spend under the car hammering the damn thing tomorrow. I am replacing that pin with a screw/nut like in the picture so I don't ever have to deal with it again LOL.

 

I could kick the stupid car right now.

[Danbob]

Okay....I got the smaller pin out...BUT....I worked on the larger pin with a hammer and a goddamn pin punch.....FOREVER....It won't budge.....How the hell can I get it out quickly???? Drill? Heat? really strong stuff that eats metal? This is the first time in my life that PB blaster is not working

[Danbob]

Okay I have officially given up and I am gonna let my mechanic do it when he replaces the throwout bearing. The second of the two pins is just completely fused to the tranny arm. I drilled, hacked, smacked, and used all the tools suggested and the damn thing just won't come out. I think he's gonna have to heat it off. I don't have anything that gets hot enough to get it off. PLus having a lift might help get more leverage on the pin....I suggest to anyone that is going to do this to make sure you have access to heat and a lift because I am very mechanically inclined and I just could not free up this pin without a mechanics tool set.

 

*DEFEATED* Sniffle

[DerFahrer]

I really, really need to do a write-up on this. I'm checking the forums kinda quickly, so I can't make a huge post right now, but if you can wait, I will post up some pointers.

[Danbob]

I really, really need to do a write-up on this. I'm checking the forums kinda quickly, so I can't make a huge post right now, but if you can wait, I will post up some pointers.

 

 

I would love for you to do this....I can wait....Just post up a link when you do it so i can find it! Thanks so much! I'd rather pay my mechanic to do other stuff liike the throwout bearing and timing belt than these little stupid bushings that i should be able to do myself.

[DerFahrer]

This isn't complete, I don't have any pics of me actually doing it on the car, but this is a write-up I did for someone else a little while ago. The pics won't come up anymore unfortunately...

 

I presume the shifter is loose from side-to-side, which means the bushings that are the hardest to get to are the ones that are bad :?

 

You can refer to my little drawing for all my instructions:

 

Before you start with the hard part, take apart any part of the shifter that is easily accessible, like inside the car. Also, refer to the drawing, the circle in the bracket to the left is a vertical bolt. Take that out and remove the vertical bracket. That way, you won't have anything in your way when you get to the hard part.

 

As you know, you have to remove the bolt going through the boss ( yellow) in order to replace the bushings (blue, and that bolt cannot be removed while on the car, because the little snout on the transmission blocks it. So you have to hammer out the pins that hold the boss to the shift rod (green) and then work the boss off the shift rod, and remove the entire assembly out of the car, so you can take the bolt out and replace the bushings.

 

The pins are the exact same roll pins that hold our axles in place, just smaller.

 

Those pin can be quite a pain for several reasons:

1) The pins sit at an angle

2) The pins are hard to reach since the assembly is so far up inside

3) The inner pin is holding the outer pin in place

4) The outer protrudes from the boss

4) The pins probably haven't moved since the car was built

 

So here's how we eliminate each problem:

1) The pin sits at an angle... in Neutral. I believe that putting the shifter in Reverse will put the pin in a (mostly) vertical position, and Reverse also pulls the assembly away from the transmission giving you more room to work.

2) You can't just put the punch up against the pin and expect to have room to hit it with a hammer, so you will have to "extend" your punch. Here is my ghetto-fabulous way of doing it:

----- Get a punch like this (yeah, mine's a little bent ):

Oh, and the size of the punch tip doesn't matter that much, just as long as it's close to that one...

----- All the punches I've seen have 8mm hexagonal shapes, so take an 8mm socket and put it on a socket extension like so:

----- Then, put the punch in the socket like this:

 

... and duct-tape the whole assembly together, because I can guarantee that it will come apart while you're working underneath the car, and then you have to go running after the various parts :x

3) The inner pin is what's holding the outer pin in place. Chances are you won't even SEE the inner pin, but what you need to do is stick your punch assembly very slightly into the hole in the pins at an angle and start hammering on it. It will take some effort, but after a while, you should notice that the inner pin is starting to come out. Once you can see the edge of the inner pin, put the punch assembly against it and hammer it out. Now you can work on the outer pin

4) Since the outer pin is actually protruding out of the boss, you can't just put the punch on the edge of the pin, hammer on it, and expect it to stay in place. With axles, you're fortunate because the pin recedes into the axle, so you can put the punch on the edge of the pin and against the lip of the axle, so the punch will stay in place on the edge of the pin while you hammer it out. Not so in this case. So, there's a fairly easy and ingenious way to take care of this:

----- Find a small socket (around 4-6mm will do) and simply slide it over the punch like so:

Then, what you can do is put the punch tip into the hole in the pin and push it all the way in until the socket meets the pin. That way, you can actually hammer directly on the pin, and your punch won't move since its tip is inside the pin.

5) I can't say it enough, these pins are very tedious to get out. They haven't moved in years, so it will take a good while of straight hammering on them to get them to move. PB Blaster or other such rust-breakers might help, but not much. Don't be a wuss when you hit on them either, in fact, any anger that you've developed at this point is best vented on these pins . I've never bent anything, so you should be okay.

 

Great! The pins are out! But wait just a minute...

 

We still have to get the boss off the shift rod!!! :evil:

 

It just so happens that a tie-rod pickle fork fits perfectly behind the edges of the boss where it meets the shift rod. And there happens to be a bolt directly below this area on the transmission casing that serves as a perfect fulcrum. Yes, you're going to use a lever to pop the boss off of the shift rod. Why? Because, like the pins, the boss hasn't come off the shift rod since the car's been built, so it will take some impact to get it loose.

 

I don't have any pictures, but basically, put the tie-rod fork against the boss and against the bolt on the tranny casing, and start hammering towards the front of the car.

 

NOW... I understand that you're worried about possibly breaking in something inside the transmission, as what you're doing at this point is basically taking the shifter that's already in Reverse, and slamming it in that same direction every time you hit the fork with the hammer. You can keep trying it for a while, but if the boss refuses to come off, then you might have to... start cutting :shock:

 

I was lucky with my Legacy, because after a few short minutes of hammering on it like this, the boss just popped right off. In fact, it popped off so fast, it flew straight towards my nose and hit hard enough to make it bleed!!! But I wasn't so lucky with my XT. I had to cut it off.

 

If this happens to you, then you will need to take a Dremel tool, and cut on either side of the boss. Start from the edge where you put the fork against it, and go back until you get to the point where the metal bends. You could cut straight through the hole, which will simply give you less to cut through, and then you should cut as close to 180º on the other side of the boss in the same manner. Cut deep enough until you get to the shift rod underneath. Then once you've done that, take a flathead screwdriver, put it against the edge of the boss at an angle facing upwards toward the car, and then hammer against the screwdriver. This will both weaken the boss's grip on the shift rod and push it off the shift rod. After a bit of hammering, the boss should slide off. Now you have to go get a new boss from the dealer :oops: But... as they say, that's life...

 

Now that you've got the whole assembly apart, you can FINALLY get to those damn bushings! Replacing them is straightforward enough, just remove the bolt, remove the boss from the bracket, and put the new bushings in the boss. Make sure to lube them good (I like lithium grease), and reassemble it. Slide the boss back onto the shift rod, and you WILL have to reuse the pins. I've tried putting bolts in the hole instead of the pins, and no matter how tight I got the bolt into the hole, it would always move around a bit. Subaru used those pins because it holds the boss tight on the shift rod.

 

Reinstall the brackets, the return spring, all that fun stuff, and the rest of the reassembly is the reverse of disassembly.

 

No it's not fun, and no it's not easy. But man will that shifter feel a whole lot better once it's tightened up again!

[Danbob]

THANKS SO MUCH!!!!!! I can't even explain how apreciative I am! - Dan:headbang:

[BigMattyD]

If you aren't using it already, make sure you use a small sledge hammer (4lbs) or so. A regular hammer just doesn't give enough force to really work. I used a small hammer and it took hours of swearing, sweating, banging, PB blaster, etc.

 

That's when I went to the store. Walmart had a small sledge hammer for about 10 dollars. It made a big difference. Also make sure you have the car lifted enough so that you have ample room to swing the hammer. (Be sure the car is steady, we don't want any mishaps..)

 

This project was probably the most frustrating one I have ever undertaken. I was ready to give up two or three times. But when I achieved success, it was all worth it. If you have a camera, take some pics to share...

 

Matt D

 

P.S. Suby luvr, that was a great idea to use the small punch with the socket over top of it to get the large pin flush or just below the surface. Drilling the end of the pin to form a depression was a real pain. It worked, but your way seems cooler...