shifter bushing

[driftxsequence]

Is the IX any different when it comes to replacing shifter bushings? I am going to look at one today and plan on buying. Hhe said "it's a bear of a job", but drivable as is. I have yet to find a guide on how to replace the bushings.

I come from a Mazda RX7 background so I'm no stranger to turning a wrench, and I've rebuilt a few rotary engines - but this is new territory for me.

P.S: As a prospective buyer, what a great time for e30tech and its IX section to disappear! :rippedoff:

[The Dark Side of Will]

I'm in the middle of doing shifter work on my car right now.

You have to drop the catalyst, heat shields and rear driveshaft to be able to lower the transfer case such that you can even SEE the shifter. In order to have enough space to get your hands to it, you'll have to remove the front driveshaft as well.

That makes it a great time to replace guibos, grease front driveshaft splines and do other PM's like exhaust flange & gasket maintenance.

[nrubenstein]

I think that in order to do the selector joint, you have to suck it up and pull the transfer case. Which means that you should do the giubo between them as well.

And, it also means that it's worth thinking about the age of your clutch while you're in there. Given how cheap E30 clutches are, you might as well do that while you have everything disconnected anyway.

(The iX needs a shifter rebuild desperately, so that's actually on my agenda for this weekend.)

[driftxsequence]

I went and saw the car last night and put a deposit on it. Shifter is pretty damn sloppy. In order to get into reverse, it has to be slid so far left it moves the center console There is a good 2-3 inches or more of play in neutral.

So only the TC needs dropped, not the entire transmission?

Other problems include:
Coolant light was on, coolant gauge was non-operable.
Brake lights came on randomly, but all 3 tail lights were good.
Oil change, and inspection lights were on (I read how to reset these with jumping the pins)
check engine light would randomly go on and off while driving.
ABS light was on the whole time.
odo was broken, as expected

There were no oil pan leaks, all the cv boots were great and came with a good 6 spare set of boots. Came with a timing belt and waterpump, and well as a few other spares.

[The Dark Side of Will]

So only the TC needs dropped, not the entire transmission?

So far I've been able to access things by unbolting the T-case crossmember and lowering the back end of the driveline... IE tilting everything back. I don't know if I'll have enough manual access that way to get to the "rod joint" at the back end of the shift shaft, without unbolting the T-case from the trans.

[driftxsequence]

Cool! If you have some time to document and snap photos please do! I plan on doing this ASAP.

[The Dark Side of Will]

It's pretty straightforward if you remove the things I mentioned earlier, then unbolt the T-case crossmember from the body and lower it with a jack.

As I mentioned, I do not know if I will be able to remove the rod joint without removing the T-case.

Has anyone here been able to do that?

[EyExR]

I think you could do it without removing the transfer case.
If you have a way of lowering the subframe/engine a bit, I think that would help a lot.

You should be aware that one of the bushings is specific and also expensive for what it is. Part# 25111221569

I've seen people just use rtv to reinforce the bushing instead but I'm not so sure how well that would work. I bit the bullet and bought it new. Feels great.

[nando]

Damn that's expensive. And they aren't even yellow zinc coated anymore.

I had an old one from my ix parts car laying around that looked really shitty. I threw it in a vibro cleaner for 5 minutes and it came back out like brand new, even the rubber is nice. I'm glad I kept it instead of throwing it away - and it wouldn't be too tough to make a new bushing insert out of poly or delrin. Probably cheaper than $130 too.

[xXWarsmithXx]

So the whole process to replace the shifter bushings is quite a bit more involved compared to a RWD, anyone have any experience with the pelican parts bushing kit? Is there a better choice out there? I just hate having any slop in my shifter :/

https://www.pelicanparts.com/catalog/SuperCat/0239/BMW_0239_TSHIFT_pg2.htm#item2

[Kershaw]

It's all the same except the shifter arm bearing.



This guy. Don't bother buying a new one. They are expensive and wobbly. Take your old one, cut out the old bushing. Replace it with anything you can find. I used a swaybar endlink bushing from an Explorer I had laying around. Garagistic makes a delrin replacement as well. It's the red circle.

https://store.garagistic.com/E30-delrin-shifter-bushing-kit?gclid=CjwKCAiAm7LSBRBBEiwAvL1-L4awsfLx1S2e3iTA6OFRrVNl_JkPoh-gnXgkijToLwS33eVizbEM-xoCo48QAvD_BwE

[driftxsequence]

so i found out that with blown engine mounts, the engine moved forward and back and caused some weird binding when the delrin got hot in the carrier. it made an awful sound and feel. When everything was cool/cold it never did it. I swapped it out for the garagistic poly bushing and havent had a problem since. I also did engine mounts so who knows. just my experience.

[xXWarsmithXx]

Awesome! Ill buy the parts this weekend and start looking for anything else that isn't 100%