Rear Shift Rod Bushing Options

[patssle]

I'm replacing the 2 rear bushings in my attempts to fix my shifting problems (4th gear goes into 2nd). I bought the bushings from Pelican Parts for my '76 side shifter.

When I slip the shift rod bushing over the rod, the rod is pretty loose. It's about 1/16ths smaller than the bushing.

Any thoughts to why it's so loose?

[john rogers]

The brass bushing work very well as long as the small bellows cover is there to keep the oil and grit out otherwise the parts will wear pretty badly. A trick we used on mine and other race cars is to get several of the very small nylon wire ties and put several through the ID of the bushing in the same direction the shift rod goes. Loop them and tighten them so they are snug and then snip off the ends. The nylon wire ties will act as a natural slippery surface that will not cause any abrasion to the shift rod.

I usually replaced all the bushings every winter as part of down time maintenance and put in new ones. You can slide a couple of the very small ones through the firewall bushing but you have to tie off the ends around the forward shift rod so they do not work out.