So it just occurred to me that my brother is in a welding program and can weld for free. Have any of you rebuilt your shift linkages? I see Innovative makes a replacement U-joint for their linkages for $45. Has anyone tried to make that part fit their OEM shifter?

Just curious because I always thought it involved cutting and welding two new u-joints on there. Any ideas? My shifter has a good 1-2" of slop and it's pissing me off. It's also confusing to teach new people manual.

 

The joint that Innovative sells does not work for OEM linkages, and only for their in-house linkages.

 

Crap. Appreciate the feedback.

I know I read a post at one point where a dude welded two new u-joints together, but I can't find it. I'm getting real tired of the slop but I don't want to fork out the cash for a new linkage.

 

I replaced all of the guts at the bottom of the shift lever with new OEM parts a few years ago. It did improve the feel, but there is still some slop from the U-joint.

 

I tried drilling out the shaft for the front (vertical) half of the joint and replacing with a mess of standard bushings and sleeves from the hardware store - found a write-up here on HT but would have to look for it again. Wrecked a drill bit because I have no drill press or skills, but the slop improved noticeably. I don't know that I'd recommend it without a drill press, but the results were worth it for me.

 

1320 sells solid shifter bushings, and Xenochron has a bitch-pin replacement piece called the "Tyrannosaur Tightener".

The dealer may still have the parts to rebuild the shifter, they did for me but that was 7 years ago now.

I don't have the xenochron piece yet but the solid bushings and having fresher OE parts for the other joints really helps. My b-pin keeps loosening so I'll probably get it soon.

Xenocron Tuning:Dyno Designs Tyrannosaur Tightener (B&D-Series)
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1320-Perfor...item3b11f2d0fa

 

I'll look into it. I've already done the three shifter bushings, the plastic collar the ball of the shifter sits in, as well as some of those pieces where the shifter mounts to the linkage. It's just my two u-joints now.

Solid bushings? Does your shifter vibrate at all?

For the price of that steering tightener I could probably buy a complete new linkage and new bitch pin. Looks interesting though.

How the hell does the bitch pin loosen? It takes the force of Satan's butthole clenching down on it to get it in there. Did you reuse it?

 

No more vibrations than before I suppose, I have innovative mounts though so the whole car kinda vibrates a bit.

Re; the pin, my guess is its vibrating out. I did re-use it so maybe I should have replaced with new. I decided to get that tightener part so I'll be rid of it soon.

 

yea thats a good question
bitch pins dont loosen
not the famous honda one anyway