Geo Metro shifter bushing replacement
 

As I mentioned in my build thread, I recently 3d printed out some new shifter bushings for my 99 Chevy Metro.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1426769736




Last night was the night to install them. Thankfully, the process was fairly painless. The biggest pain in the butt was getting the old bushings out.

Step one, jack the car up and this is what you should see. Thankfully, there is quite a bit of room to work around the exhaust. Nothing really looks bad visually (besides the rust, thanks Wisconsin salt), but if you feel that joint, it moves around a lot.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1427201426



The next step is to remove the bolt. The linkage will just drop down out of the way. Now you can see the OEM bushings.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1427201457



The OEM bushings are also made of a plastic material. I'd guess nylon or something similar. They are press fit (or maybe just rusted in place), so this was the only semi-difficult part. I ended up drilling them out. After I got them out, I cleaned up the hole.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1427201457

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1427201457



Last, I put the new bushings in. They were a slight press fit. I ended up using my ratchet to pound them in, it worked well. I also lubed everything up with some grease I had laying around before bolting things back up.

http://ecomodder.com/forum/attachmen...1&d=1427201457



The difference is night and day better. There is no slop anymore, you can MUCH more easily feel what gear you're going into, and there is no side to side slop when you're in neutral.

If any other Metro owners are interested, I can print you up a set of bushings for your car. Just shoot me a PM.

Mine are still good! (32k kms / 20k mi on them.)

But I take it the OEM bushings aren't available anymore?

That is what I've read. I never really looked into it super deep because I can print new ones and thats easier than ordering them for me.

Wow that's cool, bring able to print your own bushings