Shifter Removal

[redmr2_man]

Hey guys, I tried searching and couldn't come up with much.

Basically my 97 trans might be going out on me at around 155k.

It had a problem popping out of 5th for awhile and now it's happening in third and sometimes first, while fifth is now rarely usable.

I came across this site in my searching:

http://www.brian894x4.com/Shifter.html

and he explains that sometimes 4runner transmissions don't really go out, it's just that the shifter bushing gets REALLY bad.

I'm hoping this is the culprit, but I'm having a ***** of a time trying to get the stock shifter out.

I followed his directions and even got a friend over to help, but it won't move at all!

How do you get it to turn after the spring mechanism is pressed down? It won't turn at all! Should we be in a gear? The spring mechanism won't push down if you start off in a gear...

Any help, links, insight, anything....would be great!

Thank you!

-Adrian

 

[Charlee78]

Hi, it's not the shifter you need to turn. the little "washer" you push down to compress the spring is the part you need to turn. I'm not sure but I think you need to turn it to the left.

If you do it right, it's gonna pop out of there by itself.

 

[redmr2_man]

awesome! thank you very much, i'll try that in a bit!

 

[redmr2_man]

got it out with ease, guess I misunderstood the directions. Great job man, thanks.

The bushing looks identical to the brian4x4 link, as it's completely trashed, so hopefully this cures the problem!

 

[Charlee78]

Hey, glad to hear it worked, do you have a picture of that bushing?

 

[redmr2_man]

^
you can see how what used to be a rubber bushing is now nothing more than a greasy broken rubber mush.

^that's the new one going in, picture courtesy of marlin crawler.

I'll post up if it fixes my problem, I'm hoping it does...

 

[redmr2_man]

came home from the vet, it was sitting by my door. Took 30 seconds to install, and then straight to the test drive.

Worked perfectly. Drove 3 miles city and 15 hwy and not one pop out.

Thanks Again!

 

[Charlee78]

Cool!! Happy for you. Might try it in my because it pops out of first sometimes.