Sheesh! Slacker.
I guess anymore this is what constitutes as "later today".
Here's the under-hood bushings. Pretty simplistic, but when I posted the above I was running ragged.
The above are the levers out on the transmission. We can stiffen the cable mounting bracket various ways (newest version that I know of are brass bushings---I don't mind them in this case--it's just to solid mount the cables and doesn't rotate), but that's been covered countless ways before. I think the OG
www.faq.com site even has relevant solutions.
The ones we're looking at here that can make a difference are PNC #s 23995 ( Part # MD719165 ). Not surprisingly, Mitsubishi currently has them on U.S. back order status in the U.S.. They're around $9 each at this time, and there are two. I have a bunch on order (regardless of whether or not they sell, I want some spares for my cars) but we'll see if they come in. You can take this lever off, and if they're in good shape, clean them and lube them up. These bushings *can* make a bigger difference than you think, and are probably *THE* most overlooked bushing in the shifter system. In fact, several years ago I fell under the impression that I had a definitive grasp on these cars and what could and couldn't make them feel like crap.
(Diatribe moved below...you can skip it if you just want to take my word on how these bushings can ruin shifting)
I had built a transmission for a customer (this means it's been a LONG "few years"), put in a short shifter, replaced the bushings everywhere else, and possibly had new cables in it (can't remember 100% at this point). The car shifted, but it felt like you were pushing through a bowl of half-frozen jello on every shift. We removed the cables, shifter, nothing....trans felt that way shifting it by hand under the hood as well. Pulled the trans, opened the cases---all of the forks, hubs, sleeves, rails...butter. Put the trans back together---same thing. Tear down again..butter. Put trans back together...crap. Call in the only employee that I had over the years that I taught how to build transmissions (and he end up being possibly better than I ever was, in a time-frame that amazed me). We look at it together, *NO ISSUE*. Put it back together, put in car, shifts like crap again. Pull back out...rinse, repeat.
Finally, one of the REALLY OG guys and I are sitting there looking at the car again after a long period of time. We go through the whole saga, and he says "So, the shift lever on the trans is the ONLY thing you haven't tried?" I kinda looked at him, paused for a minute, reviewed everything in my head for a minute and said "Yeah, but it just pivots on the assembly, and I've never seen an issue like that in working on these cars daily for 20+ years now.....crap! Yeah. Okay. Let's swap it.". Swapped the arm from another trans, and sure enough---there's the "butter" that evaded me like a simpleton. I tore the original down and found that a buildup of almost 30 years and degradation of the bearings was seizing it up--literally *thousands* of dollars in shop time lost because of $18 in bushings.
I'm very OCD with stuff, but this was something I missed by NOT being OCD enough, and use it an an argument these days to support said OCD....(END Diatribe)
The shift shoe (PNC # 712919 , Part # MD712919) is typically replaced during rebuilds. It's pretty durable, most likely can use some lube on ANY car, but if you're trying to improve shifting (outside of the transmission itself), it's only about $3. If you're replacing the bushings mentioned further above, it's a quick/cheap thing to replace.
As for the trans cable ends (which got me started on this (now) epic novel), I still swear on the Delrin units we make (and have made for 20+ years). I don't push them often, we don't sell them hand-over-fist, and we (currently) still sell them for the same $18.00 per set that we have since day 1.
https://jnztuning.com/product/jnz-tuning-shifter-cable-bushing-kit-dsm/ They also come with the correct sized pin clips (added several years back--they didn't used to like most of the cable end bushings on the market)---yet still the same price.
Hope this helps. Now I'm going back to looking up the seemingly ONE thing I haven't done in 25 years of owning/working on these cars--figuring out how to get the 3rd brake light assembly out of the wing without breaking 30+ year old plastic in the process (ugh--I hate body stuff!).