Shifter Seat/Bushing

One of the (many) most common problems with trucks like mine is that the shifter bushing/seat disintegrates over time. This makes shifting sloppy at best and almost impossible to find your gears at worst. Mine was pretty much gone, but since I'm well aware of where the gears are, I didn't have too much trouble shifting.

I called up my mechanic first because, honestly, I was nervous about doing any repairs on my truck (even though I bought it specifically so that I could work on it myself). I am a girl, completely inexperienced and have no idea what really goes into wrenching on a vehicle. He wanted something like $160 to replace the bushing.

I did some research and found out that I could get the bushing for $10 at Marlin Crawler so the $160 sounded like way too much cash. (*Note: I am well aware of the fact that here in Cali work at shops is expensive due to the fact that we pay our people a pretty decent wage and general overhead is pricey too.) I read some write-ups on YotaTech.com and this one on OffRoad.com. I gained some confidence and ordered the parts from Marlin (seat and socket: $16 + shipping total).

When the parts arrived I was excited. I was really about to do my very own repair and save myself some cash! I pulled out a pair of needle nose pliers, socket and ratchet and started in on my job.

Everything was going really well until I tried to pull the rubber boot that sits on the tranny off. It broke apart like brittle 20 year old rubber is prone to do. I totally freaked out and called up my local Toyota dealership. They said that the boot was $90-something dollars! for a little rubber boot!?!

(<--This is what was left of the original shifter seat. Black goo.)

So I half-heartedly checked back on Marlin's website to see if they might carry it. They do! And the best part? It was less than 7 bucks. I went ahead and ordered 4 of their "low profile magnetic drain plugs" for my tranny, t-case, front and rear differentials since I was already paying for shipping.

The total cost was $39, not including tax/shipping. It was a super simple job and I decided to drain/fill my tranny since I was in there and have heard that it was easier to kill two birds with this one stone. It was, and thanks to these handy new drain plugs, the one that damn near stripped on my tranny was replaced at the same time.

This was the first repair I attempted on my truck. It was simple, scary, and well worth it. Total time: almost 2 weeks from start to finish (including down time due to that ripped boot). Total wrench time for me: 25 minutes. Yes, I took my time to make sure that I did everything correctly. She shifts perfectly now.