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Console Removal, Shifter Bushing Install

Hello all,

Today I installed my Road Race Engineering polyeurethane shifter bushings, the ones at the base of the shifter.

Here are the pictures along with my installation directions on how to make the SHIFTER BUSHING install a piece of cake.
I recommend starting at the BACK of the console, this makes for an easy removal/install.

I ONLY took pictures of one side of the console, make sure to do each step to BOTH sides in order to remove the console.



One: remove the screw inside the red circle at the BACK of the console. At this step, ignore the purple circle, this will be refered to in a later step.



Two: remove the screw inside the red circle. This screw is hidden behind the lower trim. I found this screw very easy to remove with both driver & passenger seats all the way to the back.



Three: remove the screw in the red circle. The screw in the purple circle is a little hard to remove at first, but I found it very easy to remove with my ratchet along with a phillips bit.



Four: follow the green arrow and slide down the seatbelt clip. After doing so, the seatbelt bolt will be exposed. Remove the bolt circled in red.



Five: pry the armrest tray gently out of the console with a small flathead screwdriver (as shown).



Six: after removal of the armrest tray, the inside is shown.

REFER back to step 1 to understand this step, step 6.

Pop loose the seatbelt trim, located inside of the purple circle, as shown in step 1. Don't worry, this trim will not fall off, it is supposed to stay wrapped around the seatbelt.
After popping loose the seatbelt trim in step 1, push the seatbelt trim as well as the seatbelt guide (both circled in green) through the seatbelt trim hole. Follow the purple dashed line and you should end up at the purple X. This is a crucial step, if you do not do this, removing the console will be a great pain.



Seven: remove the (3) screws inside of the red circles, the fourth screw is hidden behind the group of wires located with a red arrow. Obviously, in order to remove these (4) screws, you WILL have to remove the radio along with the radio trim.

After these 7 steps, removal of the console is a piece of cake or atleast it should be.

On the outside of the EMERGENCY BRAKE, is the E-Brake trim. Pop this trim off and you are almost ready to pull the console out.

You will have to remove the shift knob in order to take the console out. I also removed the shift boot, you may not need to, but I found it much easier to remove the console in doing so.

You will have to pull the console towards the back of the car in order to remove it. There are (2) plastic tabs in the front of the console hidden inside of where the radio is located. Be sure not to bend them, if you do, installation of the console might be a little harder. If these (2) tabs are sligthly bent, the console will not sit flush infront and this will cuase the console not to be installed properly.


After you remove the console, you will be exposed to the old factory (QUIET) bushings.



Eight: remove the (2) bolts in the red circles, remove the bolt located near the red arrow and remove the bolt in the green circle. The bolt in the green circle is a bit of a pain to remove. In order to remove the bolt without a problem, I had to remove the pin from the bushing located next to the purple arrow. This allowed the bolt to be fully exposed from the shifter rod (you will see when doing the removal).

After removing all of the bolts, you can pull the shifter assembly out and fully expose the bottom of the shifter plate. Do not pull the assembly out to far, you may end up bending the shifter cables, you DO NOT want this to happen. If you bend the shifter cables, shifting will be a pain in the ass and you may end up having to replace the shifter cables in order to fix this error.

In order to remove the old shifter bushings, you wil need to press out the old ones. In order to do so, push down on the metal bushing shafts located inside of the bushings. The bushing shafts will fall right out. Use a needle nose plier or push hard on the bushings in order to remove it.

NOW you are ready to install the NEW shifter bushings. I opted to go with the RRE polyeurethane shifter bushings instead of the machined metal ones as many others have chosen to use.

In order to install the new bushings, you may have to press them in very hard in order to get them to fit. The (3) bushings were very easy to install, but the one located in STEP 8, next to the red arrow, was a pain to do. Since the metal shifter shaft was in the way (you WILL FIND OUT), I had to use my brain in order to get it to install properly.

Once all the bushings were exposed, it only took me about 5 minutes to install the new ones. The entire process (removal/install) should take about 1 - 2 hours if you have never removed the console before.

After the install, I chose to drive the car around the block to see how everything went. Shifting was improved, not as much as I thought, but a lot better than it was. With the new bushings installed, there is a noticable difference in sound. The old bushings were very quite when shifting. With the new ones, there is a "clunk" noise when shifting. Nothing is wrong, it just sounds strange.


Enjoy the new and improved shifting!

Thanks to Roadraceengineering.com for making the bushings!


Let me know if these directions helped with your removall/install of the console. I would greatly appreciate any input. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.


Rory J. Conway
 
Last edited by a moderator:

After spending 1 hour trying to post these directions before, I was screwed by Internet Explorer crashings on me. So, I debated on if I should try and repost them again. I figured everyone could benefit from this, so I spent 1 more hour reposting them for everyone to enjoy.

Sponge Bob Square Pants looks like he doesnt care about my bitching, but I don't care.


F U 2 Sponge Bob!




Rory J. Conway
cool.gif
 

Thanks !!!

I busted my ass on this one. It was a PAIN in the a$$
mad.gif


But, it was WELL worth it, IMOP!

Thanks again.


(anything to help out the cause)


Rory J. Conway
 

bazeng

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 6, 2003
Messages
2,520
Location
Melbourne, Australia
i been contemplating on whether i should do this to my car..

is it worth it?? does it really change the shifter feel by that much?? good enough to take times off the 1/4?? or just more pleasant to drive?

cool instuctions mate.. if it is worth doin.. it'll be my next mod for sure.. (can i just get normal washers from anywhere to do this?), im located in oz
 

In my opinion, it IS worth the hassle of taking out the console to install the upgraded shifter bushings. The way the shifter feels is undescribable, you will definatly notice a difference when shifting.

As far as taking off time in the 1/4 mile, I really doubt it, but you never know. The shift is very enjoyable and if you do this mod, I am sure you will like it.

I would go with the RoadRaceEngineering polyeurethane bushings, since those are the ones I used.

Enjoy!

Rory J. Conway
 

Romanova

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
3,855
Location
Cypress, TX
Taking that damn console off is a nightmare. It will make you want to drink yourself into a coma... well worth it though. I used washers on mine... nice and cheap. Made a difference too!
 

I'm about to put the aluminum bushings in mine, THANK YOU SOOO MUCH FOR THOES AMAZING INSTRUCTIONS! And I wish I would have known about the RRE bushings, I would have bought thoes instead. I can't say enough about how amazing RRE is with their customer support.
 

Yeah, nice post but it's definitely not as easy as it looks for the first time.You'll have a nice pile of screws when its out.And some of those screws are rediculously tight.Mitsu must have put some kind of thread lock or glue on them.
One of the many battles to confront during the mod process.

Cruce
 

I have no idea what you people are talking about. I had no problem what so ever without air tools. I just used my ratchet, screwdriver and that's all. taking the pictures and removing/installing the console only took about 2 hours. It should take the average "human" at most, 2 hours without photos.


Thanks,

Rory J. Conway
 

Hertz

Staff member
Joined
Jul 29, 2002
Messages
13,501
Location
Chicago, IL
1) You don't have to take apart the seatbelt stuff. You just need to have three arms and feed the belt out as you flip the console back. FWIW, it's probably less of a pain in the ass to remove the seatbelt stuff. Apparently I've been doing it the dumb way. Figures.

2) The majority of the reports (myself included) tell tales of snapping those gold screws (purple circle, metal bracket near radio). Be prepared to drill them out. "Best use of tools" award goes out to those who used their hand impact.

3) The poly stuff may be a better move than the solid metal, especially if you replace the transmission's shifter arm bushings with metal ones. It stands to reason that you have gotta have some give somewhere -- unless you want to move the weak link into your transmission. BUT, I *never* grind or mis-shift, EVER. Okay, sometimes... but never when it was embarassing. But the point is that I think people should do all the bushings and the new OEM bushings for under-hood are definitely an improvement.
smile.gif


Thanks for the photos, great to have in the archives. We'll have to go out for a beer sometime... or maybe I should start attending ChiDSM meets. Hmm..
 

Nah.. no need for you to start attending DSM meets.. Would prefer the few beers though instead.

Maybe a Fosters Minnie Keg.. or a Schlitz... What about a Alize w/Hennessey?
tongue.gif



Thanks,

Rory J. Conway
 

Personally I would go metal over poly. Mainly because I called RRE to order the poly and they said not to use them the only reason they sell them is because some people (has to be dsm guys) dislike how short the shifter becomes without any bushings. I love my metal bushings.
 

so i realize this is 5 years old but it would be nice to see those pictures again. For some reason ive never taken my center out of any of my galants and i was searching and found this thread. Im going to install some shifter bushings. So instead of taking out a bunch of crap i dont have to does anyone have a way of seeing these pictures? Looks like they used to be hosted on this site /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 

jepherz

Staff member
Joined
Aug 8, 2004
Messages
7,877
Location
KC, Missouri
I believe I asked Hertz once before about another how-to thread that didn't have pictures that were once hosted on galantvr4.org, and he said they were lost permanently during one of the transitions. You could be a great pal to the next guy and re-take the pictures for us /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif I'd be glad to put them in their respective steps.
 
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