W58 Shifter Bushing Fitting

[240jz]

Just in case there is anyone else like me who has trouble fitting the seat bush (bushing) for your w58 gearbox. I also had problems with the cup bushing for the end of the gear lever (shifter). As far as I know I have a w58, with the longest extension housing (but not remote).

I searched and found some people seem to have trouble when fitting either the toyota or Marlin Crawler seat bush. When I took my shifter out, I found that I had no seat or ball socket bush at all, the shifter sat very low (see pic), and the cup bush for end of the shifter had pretty much disintigrated.

It was a real squeeze getting the seat bush in, and took a fair amount of force getting the one on the end of the shifter to pop on.

First thing I found was the end didn't fit back down the hole. I had just a cast socket, with no rubber, or rings like I have seen previously, so didn't need the brass socket piece from BillyM, much like with the R154. It also had wear marks from where I guess the shifter was sitting too low, and the rod was fouling the cup.

I tried a fair amount of force before giving up and getting the bush stuck in the hole just about managed to get it out using pliers. I had to file a bit of the end socket bush away to get it in.

Next when I had put the seat bush in, which was VERY tight, I found the shifter protruded way to far (see pic), and I couldn't select any gears. I took the seat out and you could see it wasn't a tight fit, more like the ball was too big for the socket (see pic).

I used a dremel with a ball grinder end to make the socket tthe right size for the shifter, tried again, but it was still too high. I ended up taking about 1 mm of the bottom of the seat bush using a detail sander. Luckily the Marlin Crawler seat bush is quite a nice material to work.

Finally, put back in, the top ledge of the ball was about level with the housing, all put back together, and works brilliantly, not looseness at all. Just a bit more work than I expected!

Anyone experience similar, or have any guesses what gearbox I have?

[240jz]

the finished seat bush in situ

[john styduhar]

I purchased a W58 bushing kit from Billy M and the Marlin Crawler delrin seat bushing fit perfectly without any modifications. One suggestion I do have with this kit is to read the online instructions before you start hacking away at the old factory yoke sleeve that the shifter ball goes into. Billy's kit, which includes a brass sleeve insert, requires only partial removal of the factory rubber/metal sleeve. If you go too far and remove the entire sleeve, the brass bushing insert will be sloppy in the hole. I found out the hard way and had to buy a full sleeve insert from Eagle Gate LLC.