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Car noob has a problem with his wide shift lever; 01 outback


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Hello USMB community! I am 100% new to Subaru's, and well, cars In general so please bear with me as I stumble through this explanation of what happened to my Outback

 

While I was driving, the shifter completely disconnected from the thing it's supposed to be shifting. It's connected at the pivot bushings, but it broke right below that. The shift lever now freely moves up and  down off of the drive shaft (i think). I really just need to know what connects to who and maybe a diagram or pic of someone else's assembly would help. 

 

Again, i'm new at all of this and am trying to learn as much as i possibly can to have a good , practical basis so that if a problem arises I'm not oblivious (as I am now) as to what's going on. Thanks for any help :)

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This is a manual transmission car, correct?

So the shifter in the car you can literally pull up on it with your hand and the whole thing picks up 2-3"? Is that right?

 

This is probably due to a combination of things, you'll want to crawl under the car and inspect.

Lift the front and support it on jack stands. If you don't have stands it would be smart to invest in a set. They're fairly cheap at parts stores and are a necessity if you plan to do any kind of work which requires jacking up the car to get under it.

 

Crawl under behind the front wheels and you'll see the back end of the transmission. On the left side (drivers) you'll see the shift linkage and a rod just below it that attaches to the back of the trans with a large round bushing.

This is the "Stay" rod and its what holds the shift lever in position relative to the transmission. At the back of the stay rod is another bushing that holds the shifter lever up and centered in position relative to the opening in the floor for the shifter to pass through.

To see the rear bushing you'll have to remove the large heat shield that attaches to the floor pan. There are either 6 or 8 (cant recall exactly) 12mm bolts that hold it on, you'll want to use PB blaster or some other penetrating oil to help crack them loose. Remove the bolts and you can slide the heat shield off to the side.

I suspect the front (round) stay bushing has deteriorated and allowed the stay rod to fall out of the rear stay bushing.

Those are fairly easy to replace and don't cost too much for dealer replacements. There are aftermarket polyurethane replacements available which cost a bit more but may improve the feel of the shifter. New bushings alone will be an improvement over worn out ones though.

 

Parts you can get from a local dealer or order through one of the online dealers and save some $$.

For Aftermarket stay bushings check out Kartboy.com.

 

Also for pics of all this stuff check out Scoobymods.com and search for shifter bushing replacement, or Kartboy. There are lots of threads there wih pics of the linkage and the bushings in question. They usually deal with Imprezas but the linkages are nearly the same and use the same bushings.

Edited by Fairtax4me
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A buddy and i looked at it and it seems the problem lies in that little broken plastic piece. It goes on that ball joint and connects to that gaping hole to The Abyss. The only piece that i need might be that little thing that's broken. So maybe a name for that or if anyone knows where i can buy one would be appreciated   :)

I dunno, just what i saw today. 

EDIT: Yes it is manual. That ball joint is on the bottom end of the shift lever, in case it's vague.


 

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post-48444-0-04478300-1372544495_thumb.jpg

Edited by jacquis
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Ah I see what you need. Dunno what it's called but it will either be something you find in a junkyard car, or you'll have to order one through a dealer.

Probably pretty cheap new, but it would almost certainly have to be ordered, which would mean waiting a few days for it to come in.

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The shifter base should not be rubbing on the driveshaft. The driveshaft is made from thin wall tubing and it doesn't take much of a gouge in the surface to weaken it. It looks like the linkage has probably broken where it attaches to the big bushing on the side of the transmission and has allowed the shifter base to rotate. It may have rusted through and torn, or the nut may have come off and it's flopping free. You need to get under the car to figure out what has come loose.

 

The ball and socket popping apart is just a secondary issue caused by that rod coming loose.

 

Likely you will need the whole shifter linkage from a car in the junkyard.

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The shifter base should not be rubbing on the driveshaft. The driveshaft is made from thin wall tubing and it doesn't take much of a gouge in the surface to weaken it. It looks like the linkage has probably broken where it attaches to the big bushing on the side of the transmission and has allowed the shifter base to rotate. It may have rusted through and torn, or the nut may have come off and it's flopping free. You need to get under the car to figure out what has come loose.

 

The ball and socket popping apart is just a secondary issue caused by that rod coming loose.

 

Likely you will need the whole shifter linkage from a car in the junkyard.

THIS Seems to be what the problem is. After a second look my dad and i noticed that rod wit the little circle was supposed to be connected to something. Just might be the issue and the little bushing is auxiliary. Problem is, there are literally NO Subaru's in ANY junkyards in Tennessee. Zero. Well there was this one. So could i order this linkage through a Subaru dealer possibly? Again, thanks for all of the replies guys, it's helped us out.

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That bushing will come with the new rod you need. Here's a picture of the whole linkage for you from subaru's Drive magazine:

upgrades1.jpg

 

EIther your stay bushing has come loose or the stay rod has broken. That let it fall onto the driveshaft where it wore through and probably heated up the shifter socket until the ball popped out.

 

Either someone on here can sell you a shifter assembly out of a car they're parting out or call the nearest subaru dealer and find out what they want.

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