I have a '98 Outback at our vacation home in Baja Calif.  The manual transmission lever is sloppy in the left-right direction.  Example: If it's in any gear (not neutral), the top of the lever will go maybe five inches left to right.  Fore and aft feels fine, an inch or so.  I have no trouble driving it like this, but my concern is whether something is about to fall apart.  The car has 200K miles; if it's simply a work bushing, i'm OK with that, as long as the linkage doesn't wind up on the roadway.  What's the fix, if i decide to do it?

 

Ron

There are a few plastic bushings in the "knuckle" part of the linkage that wear out after a while and cause exactly that problem.

Depending on the type of linkage you can replace just the bushings, but some require replacing the whole knuckle because of the way it's built. There used to be some threads floating around here with pictures comparing the two but the last time I checked the pics were all dead.

Fairtax,

 

Thanks; that's what I suspected: worn bushings.

The car is in a remote part of Baja Calif where Subaru parts are hard to find.

I forgot to ask: what happens if I don't replace the bushings?  Is there any risk of the linkage ceasing to function?

I came across this while googleing the same problem.

 

http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/showthread.php?t=753869

Also from what I've read some have the spring pin and some have bolts and nuts.  Much easier if yours already has bolts.

Here is the repair I did along with a write up. http://www.ultimatesubaru.org/forum/topic/109623-shifter-linkage-replacement/

 

From a wear stand point, I suppose the thing that the most damage would occur where there is metal to metal contact on the knucle where the bushings are worn out. Mine was rattling and being annoying so I changed it.

 

Good luck.

 

Dean