The last big item was to refurbish the shifter. Every Honda I have driven has had a crisp, smooth shifter that dropped easily into gears and gave excellent feedback. The shifter in this car felt like it was working in a bowl of oatmeal. There was so much slop in the linkage we struggled to grab reverse: the rubber would deflect so much the shift forks couldn’t engage. We pulled the linkage and replaced all of the stabilizer bushings as well as the ball seat. These are the parts we removed. The old rubber was like used chewing gum.We replaced the stabilizer bushings with urethane bushings from Energy Suspension. These will provide much better feedback. Note that the steel sleeves from the old rear bushing are re-used.The ball seat is the bearing the actual shifter rides on. We made sure to use lots of fresh grease for smooth shifting. The seat itself was in decent shape but the boot was falling apart and it just makes sense to replace them both.Our linkage with all of its fresh bushings back in place. Honda shift linkages use three main parts: the shift lever in the cabin, the stabilizer that supports the shift lever, and the rod that actuates the transmission. Most of the bushings are in the stabilizer so this can be removed on its own to avoid the so-called “Bitch Pin” that attaches the shift rod to the transmission. The BP is just a roll pin and forum dweebs hate it because most of them don’t have punch sets. We also replaced the boot over the BP since we had everything apart.We replaced the nasty and worn out OEM shift knob with an 8-ball knob we found online. The old vinyl shift knob was gross and falling apart and this was a quick and cheap replacement. We also installed a shifter extension to put the shifter closer to the wheel. The better way to do this would be to buy an extended shifter that adjusts the lever arm to shorten the shift throw. Those cost at least $100. This extension was 1/10th that. We still need to evaluate this car: if it’s good we’ll spend money on nicer parts.
Glad you’re enjoying! There will be a lot more actual racecar content coming soon. I’ve driven the car, I love it, and now it’s time to give it the TLC it really deserves. I’ve got a big pile of parts that are starting to go in and you’ll be reading about that early next year. Thanks for reading.
2 comments
Really enjoy this content! Looking forward to see how the car progresses.
Glad you’re enjoying! There will be a lot more actual racecar content coming soon. I’ve driven the car, I love it, and now it’s time to give it the TLC it really deserves. I’ve got a big pile of parts that are starting to go in and you’ll be reading about that early next year. Thanks for reading.