Excess Shifter Play

[Austin]

Hey Guys,

I recently purchased a 1990 Festiva. The shifter has lots of play to it. Does the car have shifter arm and shifter linkage bushings?

If so does anyone sell a kit with all the bushings? Or does anyone have the part numbers?

Thanks!

[TominMO]

Welcome to the forum!

Do a search on "shifter fix" or something like that. There are plenty of ways to fix this.

[jawja jim]

Shifter bushing available from Mazda, Kia, and NAPA. May have to be ordered.

[bravekozak]

welcomsign
Welcome!
You need new bushings.
There are 4 plastic bushings that wear out.
The Kia part number for the bushing is KKY01 46062



Here is the pdf.
The Kia part number for the boot is KKY01 46090



The Kia part number for the upper ball seal is KKY02 46081


The Kia part number for the lower ball seal is KKY01 46086



I personally use bronzoil bushings from Corksport because I hate going under cars more than once.

[Austin]

Awesome! Thank you very much! Do you sell the parts? I'd like to replace the wear items you listed. How much for a "kit"?

[WmWatt]

Buy them from you KIA dealer.

[bravekozak]

Austin, those pictures are from an old group buy from Four Green.
The parts are all gone. Only the pictures remain.

I checked if I could buy a rod of bronzoil and have some bushings lathed.
But it wouldn't save very much money over what Corksport charges.

[firebush357]

You can also get Bronze ones from CorkSport but they are quite pricey, around $35 a set iirc.

[Austin]

Thank you! Kia and ford say they are no longer available. Would the linkage bushings cure most of the play? I'm assuming the boot and seals are for the shift lever?

[bravekozak]

The upper and lower nylon ball seals do not need replacing if they are not cracked.
You should take them out to inspect them.
Wipe off all of the old grease and replace with some new grease.
I would recommend Nanogrease.



The lower boot will need to be replaced only if it is ripped or torn,
This will prevent water and road dirt from getting into the shifter.

Yes the bushings are the main problem with the shifter.
Plastic wears away easily. Get some bronze and have four of them turned on a lathe.
apply some nano grease. Forget about bronz oil,

[firebush357]

There is an Anchor point up near the trans that is supposed to have a Rubber bushing that usually falls apart because of age. Check to see if yours is missing, i think that causes most of the play.

[TominMO]

Thank you! Kia and ford say they are no longer available. Would the linkage bushings cure most of the play? I'm assuming the boot and seals are for the shift lever?

Their listings may not show them specifically for Festivas or Aspires, but they are still available. Buy them for a Kia Rio or early Mazda Miata. Mazda used these bushings on pretty much everything from that timeframe that was manual transmission. You may have to special-order a pack of 10 if they don't have them in stock, but you'll need six for the complete job anyway. Read up on what other people have done, to get pics so you can visualize the process.

[firebush357]

Ebay has 4 packs for $10

[TominMO]

Ebay has 4 packs for $10

This is the easy way to do this job, and remove at least 90% of the slop. I have done this on a Festiva, replacing the four bushings you can easily get to by just taking the bolts off at the shifter and transmission. For the captured bolt, I just used a very small ziptie next to the inner shaft, to remove some side-to side play. Or you could use something else like a twist tie; better than nothing, quick and free.

Don't forget the blue Loctite for the two nuts.

[Austin]

Thank you very much!