G50 shifter wobbles in gear and clunks

[carnutzzz]

All,

At the end of my drive Sunday I noticed the shifter would wobble in gear. I also noticed that when in neutral if I wobbled the shifter (typical neutral verification procedure) I could hear a clatter or clunking from about 1 foot aft of the shifter.

What did I break? The car has 83k miles.

Thanks,

'nutzzz

[chuckr]

How about your shift tower bushings ?

[88911coupe]

You may have an issue with the plastic socket that holds the shifter.

[cgibson67]

Originally Posted by chuckr

How about your shift tower bushings ?

+1 Did mine this past weekend, quick job and made a big difference.

Also, people have used a large o-ring in the tunnel to apply light pressure to the shift rod. You'll have to search for the details, but it was done to minimize shifter vibrations IIRC

[KTL]

Originally Posted by 88911coupe

You may have an issue with the plastic socket that holds the shifter.

That would be my diagnosis too. Snapped into the tail end of the shifter housing itself is a plastic ring that the main shift rod passes through. This is a guide ring that forces the shift rod to rotate instead of moving side-to-side. When that bushing completely falls apart, you can't select any of the following gears: 1st, 2nd, 5th and reverse.

These gears are selected by first pulling or pushing the shifter handle sideways, which makes the transmission shift rod rotate. The rotation is what engages the appropriate shift fork in the transmission to then select the aforementioned gears when you then push up or down on the shift handle. If that bushing is starting to fail, what you'll feel is the shifter flopping a bit because the bushing is no longer tightly capturing the shift rod and forcing it to instantly rotate

[carnutzzz]

Thanks Gents- I'll dig in this weekend and see what I see.

[JMatta]

New bushings throughout make a world of difference. They wear very slowly and you don't even recognize it, until you install the new ones and think, why didn't I replace those earlier?

[chuckr]

G-50 shift tower bushings

This is my post about the bushings...some really good pics form another poster that were helpful

[Joe Bob]

Check your trans and engine mounts as well...