A few months ago I had the typical problem most older toyota trucks had with the shifter not going into gear, so I bought a new one from marlin crawler and installed it. At first everything was great, smother shifts and it didn't jiggle in neutral. Well now its getting colder, (I dont know if this makes a difference but a lot of other posts I searched for mention the cold being part of the problem) I find it hard to get it into first. This may be unrelated but I also noticed that in third gear when I step on the gas the lever slowly moves up, then flops down a little or when I let of the gas. I was just wondering what the problem could be since I just put in a new bushing. I did have a HELL of a hard time reinstalling the shifter as one of the little cap peices wouldnt quite fit, but I double checked everything at the time. Any help would be appriciated.

 

I can't think of anything at the moment, but did you grease both shifter and bushing a little when you put them back in?

You haven't switched over to a new gear oil by chance?

When I replaced mine, the bushing was hard to get off. But, the new one snapped right on.

I hate to say it, but you may want to take it back apart and see if anything is not right.