Gear shift linkage12/15/2023 ![]() ![]() It’s a stamped metal piece that’s folded over on the sides to create a stiff boxed section. The older-style shift platform, lever, and linkage from a 2002. Some of them actually are traditional bushings with a metal sleeve through the middle, but others are more like shims, sleeves, or adapters.) If a shifter has play, it’s usually possible to tell which of these pieces are bad from the direction of free motion in the shifter. And there are a variety of, um, what should we call them? Oh, I know- bushings !-that connect the pieces to each other and to the transmission. There’s a linkage rod that connects the bottom of the shift lever to the selector rod that comes out of the back of the transmission. The lever is supported by the shift platform that’s bolted to the back of the transmission. There’s the shift lever (the thing you actually move with your hand). The shift linkage in a 2002 or other early 1970s BMW has four distinct components. Which is a professional way of saying that I strategically carved it out and left it in my writing refrigerator as something I knew I could tackle and digest in my post-Thanksgiving tryptophan-induced pie-bloated haze. As part of that vintage BMW bushing-related world tour, I began writing about the bushings in the shift platform, but quickly realized that that edged into the larger topic of the shift linkage, and decided that was better left for a piece all its own. ![]() So, the following week, I listed the bushings and other rubber items in the drivetrain and the exhaust, methodically walking from the front to the back of the car, and including things like engine mounts, the giubo, the center support bearing (none of which are bushings, but instead are “important rubber stuff that wears out”), the transmission support bushing, the bushings in the differential carrier that suspend the diff from the underbody of the car, and the exhaust hangers. But I also noted that there are many other things that can cause noise over bumps, said that what you really want is a tight car, and that there are many things other than suspension bushings that contribute to (or subtract) from tightness. So, in the piece, I listed all of a 2002’s suspension and steering bushings, their effects of being worn out, and what’s involved in replacing them. When folks say this, they usually mean the suspension bushings. Two weeks ago, I chastised people who automatically answer “It’s the bushings” to any question regarding clunks or rattles on a 2002. ![]()
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