The Wonderful Land of Serendip
Busier than I really wanted to be, but have had a forced break.
No shiftee from firstee, lil car would makee. Gearshift just flops.
Yep. Linkage disconnected.
Center console out. Yep. Shift linkage bushing broken–pretty cleanly into two pieces. Temp “jackleg mechanic” fix: quick epoxy and cloth tape [N.B., also known as "friction tape"] with a layer of epoxy over that. Holds. Shifts. Drives. But not the right fix.
This guy has the fix. Great job, Roger! Off to the hardware store! (Well, after combing through my junk bins here at twc central. Heck, I might have everything I need right here!)
UPDATE: Nope. Didn’t. Sooo, I just “had to” run an “errand” that took me by a Lowes. Picked up some Grade Five hardware (it’s be heck to have a soft steel bolt break in traffic, eh?). Yeh, looks good. Now, the key to just how much this warms the cockles of this tightwad’s heart is that when the bushing goes south on one of these lil cars–a 1997 Saturn–ya can’t just buy the bushing. The way Saturn made the thing, if you want to replace the bushing, you have to buy a $375 shift assembly cable, etc. This way, even buying an extra few pieces of hardware–spares, ya know 
–I spent about $2.50. And heck, the installation can’t be anywhere near the time and effort of replacing the entire assembly! Getting on it as soon as the battery for my lil cordless Dremmel is fully charged.
Posted: August 6th, 2007 under Uncategorized.
Tags: stupid is as stupid does
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Comment from David
Time August 7, 2007 at 8:55 PM
Ahhh, I see such things are of absolutely no interest to readers of this blog.
Well, the voices in my head are all the “interested parties” I really need, anyway.
Fn lil tidbit: when I removed the consolr to get at the linkage, I discovered some paperwork identifying the original owner of the lil Saturn (I bought it at a used car dealer, so never met the original owner. Oh, “used car dealer”? Yep. A nice young gal Lovely Daughter knows from a church group.)