Car: 1998 Civic DX Sedan
Engine: B18C1
Transmission: S80, Integra Type-R with LS 5th gear
Notes: Auto to manual swap performed by previous owner

I bought my car with a B&M dual bend shifter and shortly thereafter discovered the insanely annoying "rattle snake" vibrating noise that some others have complained about. It took me about two weeks to finally break down and investigate it. I pulled it apart and found out that the I.D. of the provided bushing is a little larger than it should be, which allows the thru bolt to move around inside the bushing (metal on metal contact).

At the end of this post is a summary of my findings as well as some suggestions, in the case you want to skip down.

The tools I used are pretty basic:

12mm socket and ratchet
12mm wrench (combination wrench)
Grease
De-greaser (cleaning)
Paper towels
Electrical tape (read further for preferred alternatives)
Knife/box cutter

To start off with, here is what the B&M looks like installed (my car used to be an auto, so yours may look a little different).

(NOTE: notice how close the shifter ball is to the metal cylinder at the back of the shifter. I ground that down a little as well.)



Here are all the parts removed.



And here is why your shifter sounds like a rattle snake. Notice that there is space for the bolt to move around freely in the bushing.

NOTE: there is more than one way to fix this problem, but my experience is recorded below.



Attempt #1: Save yourself some time and DO NOT use this method

My first thought was to wrap the bolt in a layer of electrical tape. (I also wrapped the threads in teflon tape)



When I tried to put it all back together I found that the bolt would not go through the holes in the linkage. I would have had to modify the linkage holes to make this work, which is a terrible option.

Attempt #2: This method works, but bring your patience and a steady hand. If you just don't have any other resources and DO have electrical tape, then it works.

I cut two pieces of electrical tape roughly 1" to line the inside circumference of the bushing. Then I curled each (sticky side out) and attached it to itself lightly to make it form a conical shape - it's easier to get it inside the bushing this way.



Next I inserted one piece into the bushing, not letting it go in more than half the length of the bushing. You will insert the other piece from the other side allowing it to butt against the first piece.



Finally I cut the excess off from each side. Before re-installing, I greased the bolt, the outside of the bushing, and the O rings.



After the re-install, I took it for a test drive.

Result: There is no more vibration or loose feeling when going into gear. I would consider this a temporary solution, but it does work. Please read further for possible long term fixes.


Lessons Learned and Recommendations: There are better ways of doing this, but I just wanted to dig in and see what I could discover. I recommend that you entertain the following:

1) I can't verify this, but I have heard that you can swap the OEM shifter guts into the B&M rod. This would be the best method, if it is in fact possible.

2) Use some other type of material, like a thin plastic sheet (in lieu of electrical tape) to line the inside of the bushing (preferably non-adhesive). My guess is that it should be between .005-.008" thick, but I didn't use a caliper.

3) Switch back to stock or go with a different brand, haha. I honestly don't love the feel of this short shifter, but I don't have an OEM GSR shifter to go back to. If I find one, I'll probably go back stock.



This is probably an unnecessarily long post about a simple problem, but I hope it is useful information to someone out there.

 

Please edit your post and tell us what car you have.

As it stands you have all this great info that only applies to some unknown mystery car. Could be an Integra for all we know.

Please see the Rules Sticky to make your time here at Honda-Tech more enjoyable and beneficial for you and everyone else.

Thanks.

 

super nice work on crafting a solution. please update car info

 

Thanks mate! Info added.

 

Thanks. Great post!

 

Great post, that rattle drives me nuts.

 

Hmm...I was thinking if it were possible to find some sort of sleeve but I went googling and couldn't find anything.

 

Very nice, thank you!

I have the same rattle. I also need to shorten up my shift rod to get the shifter back in position it was before the B swap. I feel like that will not make the angle so extreme and may lessen the tendency to rattle as well.

 

Nice. I suffer from this rattle as well. Is there any added shifting stiffness after the mod?

 

Electrical tape?!

That might not last very long...

 

I was wondering about putting some shrink tubing on the bolt if that would be better or longer lasting?

Or perhaps wrap the bolt with teflon thread seal tape?

I do think the angle that the B-series/Integra shift linkage puts the shifter at an angle that contributes to the rattle. I would like to shorten up my rod (wait, what?!?) to get the shifter position back to stock...

 

I would use shrink tubing if I was you. The electrical tape is only a Band-Aid imo. You could also try to pack the sleeve/bolt with some good grease to dampen the vibration. I like using Mobil SHC1500, but I'm sure any other quality grease will do.

Nice write up and pics.

 

UPDATE:
Well, it's been almost a 1.5 years since my temporary fix and the rattle has returned. There are, as mentioned before, better suited materials, so I may try to use something else. It has to be fairly thin, so I'll try to find some thin plastic sheeting and heat form it to fit. The problem isn't nearly as pronounced as it originally was but I suspect it will eventually return.

 

i have the same rattle on my 2000 ex coupe. It had an ebay short shifter and had the rattle. So I went ahead and got a Megan racing short throw shifter and the rattle stopped for about a month. Well the rattle just came back earlier on this week. Anything permanent to fix this solution would be great.

 

UPDATE (AGAIN):
I got some time to try my hand at this again. This time I used a thin piece of plastic from a pack of batteries to fill the space between the bolt and bushing. I sanded the plastic a small amount to get it to fit. I'd call it a 90% solution, as it rattles a very small amount above 7K RPMs. I'll eventually replace the entire shifter but, for now, I'm satisfied - my car never really sees anything above 3500 RPM anyway.