I am going to replace the bushings at the firewall and on the transmission. Anyone know the best place to get them and is there a better type than the stock? My car is primarily an AX car.

Thanks

all of the usual suspects carry the shift bushing kits.

Figured as much, but was just checking to see if one of our members had a line on some or if there were any that were better than others.

Jon,
I got mine from Pelican a couple of years ago. That firewall one was a real pain to get in. Finally had to cut a slice in the front part to allow it to compress enough to go thru the firewall. The others did not fit well due to wear of the shift rod and trans console, so I made some from delrin. They are working fine, but the jury is out on how long they will last.
Tom

Cool. I don't really think it will be to tough to get them in. I have done them a few times, but the people always supplies the parts We have some handy dandy tools that help in this. So how did you make yours?

The hard plastic one in the fire wall was real hard for me. Here is a link on how I did it.

Scroll down to "I converted my tail shifter to a side shifter. The shifter rod bushing that goes into the firewall was a bear to get in. So I made a tool to press it into place."

http://www.cassidy-online.com/porsche914/

That looks rather clever. Like I said, we have some handy little tools that make that job easyish.

when morgan stein's car was at dave ellisons i slipped the new one on the front rod while the old fw bushing was still in the car. the old bushing had a tighter tolerance than the brand new one. i told him why bother with it.

k

I heated my bushing at the firewall in boiling water to make it softer...seemed to work much better for the install.

If you want to get really stupid you can get a spherical bearing with a nylon bearing surface.
I used steel it is very tight. Nearly no detectable jiggle.

You got to weld in the race and you got to turn down the shift rod to match fit.

Bronze bushing at the shift console.

Next is to put a U-joint in place of that stupid coupler.

The firewall bushing is easy to put in. All you have to do is take the 3 bolts out of the front shifter assembly and slide it forward till the rod is out of the engine bay. Then the bushing just pops in place. Put the shift rod back through the bushing and bolt the assembly down and your done.

Chris

"Easy"? "Just pops into place"? You must have the wrong bushing. I believe others who've done this job will agree. The Cap'n

When you're not trying to slide it over the rod to put it in place it does go in easy. If the rod isn't in the hole, then you have the room for the bushing to give. This way you're not trying to compress it between the shift rod and the firewall. I've done this on many 914's, and yes I was using the right bushing. Think about it, if the shift rod is taken out of the picture, the bushing will pop intp place with a light tap from a deadblow hammer.

Chris

One improved bushing I used was the Patrick Motorsports Bronze trans console bushing. It seems to be a little smaller on the ID hole. And the overall OD is bigger to accommodate the often wallowed out hole in your suspension console. From my experience when I installed my Rennshift, this was the biggest culprit for lash in the linkage. A little bit of slop here propagates to a lot at your hand.

http://www.patrickmotorsports.com/part/592/

I've never even thought of doint it with the rod in p[lace, and in the 35 years I've been installing them (without that cool tool shown earlier, I've never found it "easy". I most often do them with the engine out, and have found it a bear to get in right. I use 2 BFHs and generally am able to get it in one powerful whack, but it's not "easy"........ The Cap'n

JWest Engineering

Thanks guys. I ended up just calling Jim and having him send me his monoball bushing and the bronze bushing. I really like the Jwest system, but he is sold out at the moment. I may have to do that at a later date.

Wow, I totally agree with the Cap'n
This bushing sucks.

Rich

Not sure you have to cut one to fit but as many have said they are a pain in the butt. I boiled mine and kept it really really hot, therefore soft, and I got it in.

Good luck.

T

Not going to have that problem anymore as I am going with something much different. It will be very tight