Well guys, you were right. It took an easy 30 mins or so to do this mod. I'm going to post a write up later but again, this was too easy.

The rubber ring thing in my 98 was not shattered like some of your guy's ring. However, mine was split in half---theres a top blue part and a black bottom part. the two halves were split.

In anycase, I highly recommend that at the very least you *check* to see if your ring is cracked or in pieces. If so, this fix is definitely worth doing.

Also for the guys who have done this mod: The rubber piece on the bottom of the shifter itself: did yours fully encase the bottom of the round end? Or was there a hole? Mine had a hole.

Bob

Edit: boring nite, here it is: http://www.4runners.org/articles/shift

 

Bob,
How much did you pay for the shifter bushing? Thanks.

George

 

I got mine from TOR, member on this board (he works for a toy dealership in Texas and gives a great deal on anything you need). I can't remember what I paid...but its real cheap.

 

george,

i can't remember---been a while. it was cheap though.

hey, do this mod and switch over to Redline MT-90 too.

bob

 

I just went to the dealership and I was told that they don't have it in stock. Anyway, the parts guy said it costs $37 for both the bushing and the seat.

George

 

$37?!!!

Go to another dealership, or talk to someone else. If I remember the website that details the install, it ran him like $12.

That little amount of rubber should not cost that much, and I think he is just doing his job at the "stealership."

Call around, or talk to someone else there, and if you can't get a fair price, then maybe contact TOR.

 

that's why you need to either get ahold of TOR or order it from one of the online oem parts houses. 21 bucks is all I paid for it.

 

I just replaced my shift lever seat ,which was in a million pieces, and my tranny doesn't pop out of first or third gear anymore. Amazing. I just phoned Downtown Toyota in Vancouver after e-mailing them first to check they could get it, and the part was mailed to me in 2 days. About $19 Canadian plus tax. I also put in semi synthetic oil.

 

Yep, I did it a few months ago too, it took longer to get the console apart than to unbolt the shifter and change the seat. Couldn't be simpler. They say that the new part should be more durable too. Mine only lasted 210k miles, the POS! LOL.

 

i just did the seat/bushing install. i went to the toyota parts department and i had barely even said the word shifter when the guy ran to the back and brought me what i was looking for. i guess this is a really common problem. its shifting great now. i was kinda annoyed that he gave me both bushings instead of just the seat, but after i took things apart both of them were busted. that writeup is great!

 

Get the seat and bushing from Marlin, about 2/3 down this page:
- http://www.marlincrawler.com/transmission/parts-upgrade

$16 for the pair.

 

There is also a recent 4wheeler mag out ( I forget which one ) that a friend gave me with a list of Toyota "weak links and strong fixes" and that was one of them so the dealer may be having a run on them currently

Mike

 

HEEEELP i,m having major issues with this darn toy. I did the shifter seat and bushing but now i can,t remember how exactly the bloody thing goes back together. I can get it into nuetral but cannot get into foreward gears the shifter keeps butting up against the dash. I assumed that the vent hole on the plate and the vent on the shifter body have to mate and that the vent cap faces to the rear of the trani. Its the only way it seems to fit. Signed i miss my Dodge.

 

So this is probably the cause of the extremely sloppy/hard to find gears in an 85 pickup I just looked at buying? It has about 220k miles on it

If its that easy of a fix, im stoked! Anyone know what part number it is for the older trucks?

 

Sounds like you installed the shifter in the tranny 180 degrees out. Pull the shifter out of the tranny and rotate it 180 degrees and reinstall it. Shift through the gears before you bolt it down and reinstall everything.

 

Well after getting some help in another thread finding out how to get the shift boot off I got my seat replaced. Thing is, there was only about 3 little chunks of the upper part of the seat left, the rest was gone! No little pieces to pull out, just the bottom part of the seat and 3 little chunks. I'll see how it feels when I drive home tonight, but the lack of remaining seat makes me wonder how much of it ended up in the transmission over time. I put synthetic tranny oil in this past winter, I'm wondering if I should drain it again and refill it to try and remove any remaining debris.

 

The stock seat is just rubber or plastic/ It'll get ground up in the gears no problem. Nothing in there to plug up so it should be fine to leave it in there until the next oil change.

I just replaced my seat with one of Marlin's heavy duty seats and it makes a big difference. My old one was only about 6 years old, stock design and intact. I also installed a short throw shift kit on the tranny at the same time and wow, feels like a whole new truck:





Shift throw is about 1/2 of what it used to be, play is almost non-existant, and the B&M shift lever is adjustable for 3 different orientations, I found the 30 degree angle to the driver's side is nice. No more whacking the passenger in the knee in 5th gear.

 

okay, i just tried to replace the shift seat on my 90 4runner... a couple of issues came up when i removed the shift lever boot itself... first, there's transmission oil EVERYWHERE!! coming up on the lever itself all over the shift plate even... i'm guessing this is not a good thing...? when i jacked it up to look underneath there's also oil everywhere... i was getting ready to do a drain and fill on the tranny, front and rear differential and the transfer case.. but now i'm wondering if that would be a good idea... there's been just a few drops of oil under it when it's parked so i didn't think it was a major leak, i actually didn't check the oil and thought it was motor oil :pat: any ideas? suggestions?

 

Figure out where it is leaking from. Could be the gasket and/or the steel spacers are not installed right under the shifter base. Could be the vent is plugged and letting pressure build up inside the tranny. Could be the little oil baffle under the shifter base is missing.

 

I think I am going to try this sometime soon, I have sloppy shifts sometimes, so maybe this will help fix it, I also have problems with going into 2nd and 3rd gears sometimes, so again, I will try this and hope it works good...