It did not give me any better feeling over the stock one..for some reason.. I did not overtighten anything.. but around 15lb of torque.

From the stock shifter to short shifter was a big change, but bushing just enhanced it lil bit, I barely can tell which is stock, and which is not.

Did I do something wrong?? or is there anyone who has the same prob?

Really? I noticed a pretty big change in the feel after the new bushings. I put them in this Saturday and went for a couple of drives. It's not a big change but it does improve the overall feel compared to stock. However, I was at the dealer for my first oil change and the tech didn't notice the difference at all. I was sure they would say something about it.

-jb

I don't know...but I felt the difference to be like night and day between the stockers and the KBs.

Tats.

What about transmission rattles and noises?

My off-throttle rattle is now amplified 10x with the new bushing.

I also can hear the transmission/gears when I decelerate(other than the rattle) -- That whining sound also got amplified.

U guys have that too?

I am seriously thinking about going back to stock bushing..

yeh I hear mine a bit more too. Its kinda annoying but it feels sooo good. I just turn up the radio.

ryan

GOT_WRX and all,
Did you folks have these noises with the Kartboy and the stock bushing or is the problem the Kartboy bushings?

Thanks in advance,
Scooby Don't

The stock shift lever is highly damped, hence the funny looking design. Doing more investigation, the threaded section of rod is actually 'floating', and connected to the rest of the rod by rubber alone. This is a highly effective method of noise reduction. Any aftermarket short shifter will be noticeably louder. I've been doing some experiments lately with sound damping material around the rod section covered with heat-shrink tubing to keep it all very tight. Seems very positive although the only way to eliminate the noise is going to be a short shifter with a similar floating design.

-jb

The difference my Kartboy bushings made was simply amazing. I would say the $35 Kartboy bushings made more of a difference than my $135 STi short throw shifter, but I love both of the mods to death.

I noticed a slight increase in NVH mostly only when there is a load on the motor. It's sort of a whine sound. I didn't think it was that bad. It's to be expected when you go from a soft non vibration transmitting bushing like the stock one and the shift lever even has some rubber in it. I noticed a difference in shift feel but I guess everyone has different expectations and sensitivity to the shift feel thing.

Installed my Kartboy shifter a few days ago, significant difference over stock. Plan on installing the bushings tmrw an will report back. The noises being more pronounced is common like everyone has said due to the high sound dampening of the stock shifter and bushings.

I installed the shifter first, and drove around for 2-3 days. I did not get any sound difference with the short shifter alone, but just noticed it after I installed the bushings.

I am not saying kartboy's bushings are bad quality, but I think it's just like that for all hard-rubber bushings since it absorbs less vibration than the stock one. (stock bushing is really rubbery).

Yes.. the shifting feeling changed (not too much in my opinion).

I guess I will give it a few more days and see that turning on radio works. :D

Anyways, even though it took me an hour to install the bushing, it was fun since it was my first mod on my car.

I think the harder shifter bushings did nothing for my car too :(

I also installed my KB short shifter first. I had it on for a month or so, then installed the bushings. The short shifter was like a night and day difference! :D I expected the bushings to make it feel more solid, but for some reason, it doesnt. :( I felt it a little, thats it. I dont understand why. They are MUSH better than the stock mushy sloppy bushing, and they're of high quality.

Tom@kartboy???????? Any ideas? :confused:

I am not saying kartboy's bushings are bad quality, but I think it's just like that for all hard-rubber bushings since it absorbs less vibration than the stock one. (stock bushing is really rubbery).

Yes.. the shifting feeling changed (not too much in my opinion).


thats exactly what they do
the shifter bushing are not some magical part that will make your car shift itself.
they are installed to complement the short shifter we manufacture.
example:
take your shifter with the bushings installed, put in third.
then push the shifter forward, notice that the freeplay movement is almost nonexistant?

now try that in a stock car at the dealer.
this is what they are designed to do. be it the ones we manufacture , cusco ones or ones made out of titanium (NO, we will not be making them out of Ti)
all the hardened bushings will do the same thing.

PLEASE look at the weblink and read what is said on there.
Bushings (http://kartboy.com/bushings.html)

now if there is a problem increased NVH. i suggest not doing any other mods like
stiffer suspention,
STI engine & tranny mounts(or any STI products)
Plus 1-2 tire upgrades
or any other mods that will increase the NVH

we've sold over 1500 sets of bushings and only now am i hearing about people not being happy. i guess i cant make everyone happy, but i try
tom@kartboy.com
www.kartboy.com

Cadillac and Lincoln make "fine" vehicles with little or no NVH. What little Subaru can afford to put into a WRX for NVH attenuation is quickly robbed by our bushings. It's pretty much one or the other. The greatest performance increase is minimizing the missed shifts under quick gear changes. Sometimes the flex of the stock bushings is enough to miss a shift. Will you feel a difference sitting in traffic or going to Kinkos? I guess it depends where your local Kinkos is located.


Mark

(Kartboy does not endorse Kinkos)

I like my NVH! I have more NVH than any of you guys now!! Especially with the new bushings! (that nobody else has yet) ;) Thanks Kartboy!

Erick Davis
(sponsored by Kartboy) :D

:eek:

I'm not sure you have them in right... it's completely different than stock. It's.... more snappy! Huge difference. :confused:

I dunno.....I just expected them to make a HUGE difference. I mean, the stock rubber crap bushins were REAL soft, and these Kartboy bushings are of MUSH nicer quality and are MUCH stiffer (I mean, they're solid peices of delrin!), so I expected the shifter to feel like it was literally BOLTED to the tranny.

But it doesnt..... for me anyway. I mean, for the money, its a great mod, I would've bought one either way. I dont understand why it doesnt feel that different. Which is why I ask Tom & Mark......any ideas? Could something be loose or something?? :confused:

I installed the shifter alone for a few days b/f I did the bushings. The shorter throws felt a little better, but effort increased, and still felt really notchy.

After doing the bushings, felt a huge difference. Much smoother, and easier effort to shift. With stock, I used to have problems shifting into third or second because the lever would get caught up from the slop in the rubber bushings. Now, the lever shifts smoothly between changes.

As a tradeoff, a lot of gear whine is now present. I'm going to try to get some dynamat or something to wrap the shift lever and see if that works.

Overall though, the shifter and bushings together are AWESOME. Well worth any tradeoff.

I have a kartboy shortshifter w/bushing and just switched to Redline 75w90ns tranny oil. I no longer hear the gears whine and the NVH is gone.

I have the STI short shifter with Cusco bushings and it is a great set-up. Then I put Redline gear oil in 75-90NS, and also noticed that the off throttle tranny noise is dramatically reduced. In my view, the noise has nothing to do with the shift mechanism, rather the change to synthetic oil seemed to be what helped reduce the noise.

Originally posted by no_rex_yet
I installed the shifter alone for a few days b/f I did the bushings. The shorter throws felt a little better, but effort increased, and still felt really notchy.

After doing the bushings, felt a huge difference. Much smoother, and easier effort to shift. With stock, I used to have problems shifting into third or second because the lever would get caught up from the slop in the rubber bushings. Now, the lever shifts smoothly between changes.


I did something along these lines, I put in a BPM (sorry Tom and Mark) and put 1000 miles on my WRX. I always had a little trouble quickly shifting from 4th to 5th. If I went slowly and lined 5th up well, it would slide in. But if I went too quickly I'd get this weird rubbery feeling in my shifter, even before the short shifter, and it would be tough to get into gear. In general, all my diagonal shifts were spongy feeling but 5th was the worst, I could really feel the squishy stock bushing in that gear.

Today at my first oil change, (thanks Smart Service) I had them throw on the bushing while the car was on the rack. Installation was super easy with the car in the air and they gave me a brand new lock nut so I wouldn't have to use loctite. I was floored by how soft the stock bushing was, it felt like a friggin gum eraser. No wonder my shifter felt so mushy!
The difference is indeed night and day in my car. I can't imagine how some of you don't notice or dont think there is much of a difference in your shifting. Maybe it's just car to car variation and I got one of the bad shifting cars. But I cannot stress enough that my shifter feel has improved almost as much as it did when I put the short shifter on in the first place.
My diagonal shifts have all become butter smooth and my 5th gear feels solid as a rock. It almost feels like I have a gated shifter now, every gear slots home neatly with a lot less effort. 2-3 and 4-5 are literally just a flick of the gears now. I'm really impressed by how much such a little mod can effect the feel of the shifter throw. Of course YMMV.

Thanks so much to Kartboy for the great product and excellent customer service. They even replaced a bushing my nephew lost when he was playing around in uncle's garage for an extremely low price in 3 days. If only every vendor treated it's customers this way!

I can't wait to see what else they come up with for our cars. :D


Mark

Installed Kartboy shifter. Noticed increased effort to shift. Enough so I got a little bit of pain in my hand from it initially. Got Kartboy bushings installed during an InstallFest meet. WOW! Effort went back to stock levels, smoothness and directness went way up.

Love this modification.

Well here goes the weirdo again...STi shifter setup with KB bushings, and it sounds like stock, feels light years better than stock. No increase in NVH for me, and to be fair in this comparo, I put the KBs in at the same time as the shifter, so I can't compare them to the STi bushing except to say that they're a LOT harder.

Kevin

how the crap can you hear these miniscul noises when your blasting your radio flying down the road with the windows down!

i like noises! my moms lexus for example; you cant even tell if the damn car is on or not! the littles noises just assure me that my car is intact and ready to rumble

(btw i installed the bushings and they rock, completly accomplish what they are supposed to do!)

Thanks!

Got 'em Friday, installed in under 20 minutes thanks to instructions by Peaty and am very satisfied. For ~$35 you can't expect the prodcut to deliver much more than it has. Shifts are much more positive, some of the effort in shifting has been alleviated and I feel that my STi short shifter is finally showing me what it can do. Now on to some ProDrive P1s and dark, dark window tint. :D

High performance cars by nature have higher NV&H. Thats part of the driving experience. Imagine a Hollywood chase scene without sound and vibration. Won't cut it. Whisper quite cars also have whisper quite performance. And please DO NOT improve exhaust efficiency if noise is going to be a problem.

Might think electric or hybred instead of WRX.

Just my op ed.

MM

I installed the KB shifter and bushings this weekend, and im very satisified.

The shifting is much more solid, direct and short. There is no more rubberiness and it definitely makes for more enjoyable shifiting. The shifter alone makes things nice and short, but the bushings really stiffen everything up. I think they made a huge difference.

Theres a slight increase in NVH, a little whine in 1st and 2nd, but barely noticeable. Also, i can hear the synchros spin going into 2nd, and sometimes 3rd. It put a smile on face the first time i heard it.

Waking up this morning = :confused: :eek: :mad:

Driving to work = :alien: :alien: :alien:

I don't know if this is a bushing problem... more likely I did something wrong on the install...

Installed the Kartboy short throw a little over a month ago...

The rest of the story is here...

http://www.i-club.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=126307&highlight=bushing+shift+problem


Thanks for your help!!