This story is true, but so weird I am honestly not completely sure how to tell it accurately. I will begin with photos that beg belief. They are pics of what was apparently installed in my '04 Crossfire Coupe LTD as manual shifter bushings when it was built at the factory. I got a "deal" on my Crossfire at 45,959 miles. I knew it had a few "quirks" of the kind that I usually enjoy fixing. I had no idea...this is the car that I hate to love and love to hate.

I have never owned a car with as many defects and problems as this one. The only saving grace is that I can be fairly confident that whatever goes wrong will have already been addressed on this Forum (my favorite of many, BTW). But with the latest comedy of errors that I have come across, I have never seen its mention here on the Forum. One of the issues that I decided to address after dealing with about a dozen others (admit it - you know what they are because if you haven't had to deal with them you probably know someone who has, or just search "Svengoolie" here and you will get the idea - no offense intended, the guy is my hero) was the dreadful "slop" in my 6 speed manual shifter. I have been driving manual trannies for 60 years, and I have never had one that was as sloppy, crunchy, finicky, and just plain awful as this one. Once things got even marginally warm in the operational parts of the mechanism it was time to hunt for gears, strong arm the shifter, and hope for the best.

I knew the clutch was OK, and there were no apparent issues with the transmission itself, so I narrowed things down to the shifter mechanism, and then to the bushings. I posted here asking about how difficult it would be to DIY the bushings, and got mixed and limited responses. I jacked-up and secured the car and took a long look underneath, and although I could barely see what I assumed were the bushings, I knew I could not begin to DIY the job. So, I took my car to my outstanding and long trusted Indy shop (they have done work on all my previous German cars - BMW's, MBZ's, and Porsches) and asked for help. The soft, squishy, thread spool-like objects pictured here are the actual "bushings" that were present in three locations on the shifter mechanism. These parts have no known numbers (unless you know them - Chrysler, MBZ, and about a dozen parts houses could not/would not claim them or number them). What's more, none of the parts I ordered per the manuals, diagrams, and listings and DIY's I studied existed anywhere on the entire shifter mechanism. I know this because I bought them and gave them to Cody at my Indy shop to install for me. There was not a single matching part to be found. I am going to post the photos, while I pause for a while and ponder how best to describe my truly baffling discoveries.


This was taken at the shop after removal.

"Bushings" are this long.

"Bushings" are this wide - smaller on one end than the other end.

With just a gentle squeeze, "bushings" are this soft and flexible.

Moderator note: Paragraphs are your friend, I separated text to make it easier to read.