Hi. I got my Kartboy bushing and installed it last night. It's OK, but it made less of a difference than I thought it would. I suspect the real payoff will be in about 3-4 years. The Kartboy bushing looks a lot more durable than the stock one. On my old Protege, by the time I traded it in (at 7 years old), there was a lot of slop in the shifter, which I attribute to worn bushings.

Anyway, I ran into a problem during the installation process. When I turned the nut at the end of the bushing bolt, it was fairly well siezed up, and instead of removing the nut from the bolt, I removed the bolt from the gearbox! Everything after that went OK, though it was a bit tough to screw it back in.

My question is this: how can I get that nut off so that I can put some anti-sieze compound or something on the bolt? Or do I just have to live with the fact that this part of my car has now corroded into a solid block?

BTW, don't try to save time by draining your oil pan at the same time you're changing your shifter bushing. You may end up with hot oil on your elbow.

 

I had the same thing happen during my install. Once I put everything back together I took it out for a test drive, double checked everything and to my surprise, no problems. I've had the shifter for about 2 months now, and still no problems.

I really don't think the screw being seized will cause any problems. Actually seized is a good thing, since it will not move anyways. Just make sure you tighten the screw with the same force it had for you to take it off.

Are you still using your stock shifter? If long term is your concern, you should take apart your stock shifter and look at the knuckle. The knuckle which is the friction area of the shifter, has factory paint all over it. This will over time wear out your teflon bushings that keep everything nice and tight.

Try looking into a short shifter, maybe kartboy will give you a discount since you already have the bushings. They're shifter is polished at the knuckle.
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