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I've been driving my '93 Subaru 5-speed (~92,000 miles) a lot lately because I'm moving. I noticed that there is a loud rattling noise when I'm in 2nd or 3rd gear and accelerating (around 3,000 rpm or above). If I put my hand of the shifter and push it to the side, the rattling stops or becomes quieter.

I've also noticed that there seems to be a lot of "free-play" in the shifter. When I'm in gear, I can easily move the shifter sideways over about a 4-5" distance. and still be in gear.

Any clues what the problem might be? I plan to fix the problem myself if possible, but I've not dealt with a problem like this before.

Not knowing anything about Transmissions I can only suggest that something around the shifter is probably loose. The fact that you can move the shifter to relieve the rattling says that the shifter is probably loose and perhaps that you're not getting completely in gear. However, I don't exactly know a lot about Manual trannys.

I had similar symptoms. My mechanic said I had worn out a rubber mount for the shift linkage (I think where it enters the transmission). It was a super cheap fix and it worked.

Pre-92's have a very high occurance of the shifter bushings being completely worn, to the point of falling out. 93 and 94's have this problem to a lesser extent. They redesigned the linkage for 93 and 94, to help rid this problem but it still occasionally occurs.

Boostjunkies legacy had NO lever to linkage bushing. My 91 also doesn't have this bushing.

Replace it and you SHOULD be OK.

That's the one you noticed that I'm missing too, isn't it Phil?

I don't recall if you were MISSING it, but yours was loose like a $.50 whore.

Awesome. That's just the info I was looking for.

Now I gotta dig out my repair manual and find some part numbers. No Subaru dealers within about 90 miles of me.

check the condition of the motor mounts while you are at it. They wear and give a lot of engine and transmission movement, which causes the car to buck on acceleration, as the engine moves back and forth. makes the clutch feel worse than it really is, although it does pretty much suck

BAC5.2 wrote:Pre-92's have a very high occurance of the shifter bushings being completely worn, to the point of falling out. 93 and 94's have this problem to a lesser extent. They redesigned the linkage for 93 and 94, to help rid this problem but it still occasionally occurs.

Boostjunkies legacy had NO lever to linkage bushing. My 91 also doesn't have this bushing.

Replace it and you SHOULD be OK.

Hey Phil,

Which bushing is the trouble maker that disintegrates/falls out? 35035A? 35035B?



That's for a WRX I think, but maybe it's close enough to answer the question.

35035A is the culprit.

Making a suitable replacement bushing has been on my top 5 things to do when I get some time.

I bought shifter bushings from Kartboy for the stay rod so far. Tomorrow I'll be ordering bushings for the shifter rod.

I checked the prices with the nearest Subaru dealer, they want $10 for each of the 02350800(3) pieces (there are four to replace) and $20 for the 35035A pieces (two to replace)! I'd rather not pay $80 to replace all six, anyone else think the price is high? Are these part numbers correct for the '93 Legacy?

BAC5.2 wrote:35035A is the culprit.

Making a suitable replacement bushing has been on my top 5 things to do when I get some time.

So, Kartboy's kit doesn't replace those bushings, does it?



But the STI shirt shifter replaces everything including the problem area, right?



Or, the other option is to just order the OEM replacement parts for $20 each as xtalman says.

xtalman - I'm not sure if that part number is right for a Legacy, that's a WRX diagram. The parts manual I have is only for the engine, so I don't think it covers this area. A Subaru parts dealer should be able to find it in their system, though.

I've been told that the WRX bushing (the culprit bushing shown above) will fit into our cars with slight modification, which amounts to sanding off part of the bushing lip. I have a set of them that came with the WRX suspension kit made by Energy, but I haven't got around to installing them yet

Energy does sell that shifter bushing set as a separate, I think $14

also mcmaster.com sells urethane bushing material in many ID and OD combinations which can be used to make bushings in a pinch

A little advice from the shifter bushing master (done complete bushing replacements on my 91 Legacy and my 88 XT):

The bushings that Phil mentioned are not typically the problem. In fact, those bushings should be completely intact and look almost brand-new, because they're protected from the elements by the rubber cover labeled 35016A.

There are bushings that are not shown in that diagram. The go in between the little boss that have the bushings labeled 35035F and the bracket labeled 35046. They actually are identical bushings to 35035F, but they're not in that diagram. Anyway, those bushings are usually very worn, or in the case of my two cars, completely missing. My Legacy's shifter could move from left-right twice as much in gear as it can now in Neutral.

I've done up a rather lengthy post somewhere on this board for shifter bushing replacement, so search something along the lines of "shifter bushings" under my username.

http://bbs.legacycentral.org/viewtopic.php?t=15802

There's your write up. That sounds more like what my mechanic described, he said it was a bushing near where the linkage entered the transmission.

Well, my shifter rod bushings hadn't arrived yet, but my Kartboy front and rear bushings for the stay rod did, so I went to work putting those in.

Jacked up the car, put it onto jack stands, and started with the front bushing. It was pretty easy to loosen this end of the stay rod, just unscrewed a 12mm bolt and it was loose.

Then I loosened the rear bushing, by unscrewing two more 12mm bolts. A flexi-handle was definitely useful here. The rubber had deteriorated pretty badly, as I could hear tearing sounds trying to pull it off the rod. I ended up cutting it free.

Once that end of the stay rod was free, I found that I still could not completely access the front bushing to pull it out. I loosened (but didn't remove) a 12mm bolt on a bracket underneath the car that was protruding far enough through to block movement of the stay rod. It gave me enough clearance to pull out the front bushing.

On to installation: I installed the rear bushing first, screwing in the two 13mm bolts and lock washers supplied with the Kartboy bushings. Then I lubricated the bushing with some graphite lubricant I had laying around and tried forcing the rear end of the stay rod into the hole. After much swearing, I was finally able to get it seated by using a breaker bar and leveraging against the front end of the stay rod.

Then I went to install the front bushing. This was pretty easy, as it is a two-piece design, and each piece fit in nicely. I shoved the stock metal cylinder into the holes in the bushing, and moved the front end of the stay rod into position. All that was left was to get the 12mm bolt back into the front bushing to secure everything. I spent the next hour trying to get the damn thing to start threading! Still haven't finished it yet. It will thread without the metal insert, or without the bushing, but it won't catch the threads if the bushing and metal insert are both present. Really aggravating! For now I have removed the metal insert and just have the bolt going through the bushing.

When I started playing with the shifter, my impression was that the "gates" were much more defined, and I could easily tell which gear I was in. It still has a lot of "play" when in gear because I haven't changed out the shifter rod bushings yet - I should get my parts in next week.

Looking ahead to the shifter rod bushings: it doesn't look that bad to me Maybe it's because it's just a FWD car.
It looks like I can just remove the nuts and bolts surrounding the bushings, and change them out without removing the roll pins.

Got my bushings today. For future reference, the part numbers are:

Bush Rod F
35035AA030

$10 a piece!

I'll install over the weekend and see if it fixes my problem.

Dammit!

Two of the bushings fit fine (the ones that fit the vertical bolt) but the other two (for the horizontal bolt) aren't even close. Both the inner diameter and the outer diameter are too big.

Does anyone have the correct part numbers?

xtalman wrote:Dammit!

Two of the bushings fit fine (the ones that fit the vertical bolt) but the other two (for the horizontal bolt) aren't even close. Both the inner diameter and the outer diameter are too big.

Does anyone have the correct part numbers?

For future reference, I think the part numbers for these two bushings are:

35035KA030

I'll check again when I get them.

Schematic of parts