After getting the windshield and hood installed on the white GTE, I was all ready to take her out for a test drive when I lost all gears except for reverse! The shifter felt very sloppy and wasn’t able to slot into any gear. The shifter was working fine just a couple days ago, but something changed, and the only solution was to take the center console out of the car to take a look at the transmission. I immediately saw a missing snap ring.

Luckily, the missing clip was found sitting inside the shifter boot.

I took a closer look at the shifter bushing, and something didn’t look right. The original bushing was made out of the very soft material that quickly wore away, so a better nylon bushing is available, but the one installed on this car was different than the ones I’ve used.

The bushing sits on a ball that is the end of the shift lever inside the shifter mechanism.

I had the normal replacement shifter bushing (grey one) to compare to the one that was in this car, and they were different.

The white one was more of a collar than a socket compared to the ones I’ve been using. The ball of the shifter bushing has to snap into place of the grey one, while the white one allowed the ball to slide up and down. With the displaced spring I found, there was too much play for the shifter to work properly.

I installed the bushing I normally use and knew that it will do a better job of shifting duties!