1998 90 series Prado gear shifter bushing fix (2 Viewers)

[1998prado]

Hello all,
I’m making this thread to potentially help any other prado owners who may have the same issue I recently had.

The problem: my gear shifter all of the sudden became very loose, I could gently push it between gear positions without depressing the button. It also wouldn't find park no matter how much cycling of positions and pushing I did.

The cause: the bushings at the bottom of the shifter had throughly deteriorated, basically nothing left. Allowing for a lot of play in the motion of the shifter.

The fix: obviously replace the bushing, which I’ll be detailing how to do in the following pictures in this thread.

 

[1998prado]

You’ll need to start by removing the two screws and two plastic clip inserts on the side of the center column, then the three bolts that go through the center consul, the center console also has 6 small screws on the sides ( I didn’t remove those 6 screws, however that could mean that I ripped the screws out of the plastic. Tbh I’m not sure if they hold the consul in place, or are just for the AC/heat mechanism inside it.)

Once those are removed you will need to slight tip the center consul backwards because it overlaps and hooks the column down, you can twist off the transfer case shifter and unscrew the two small screws on the front of the trans shifter

 

[1998prado]

You should now be able to tilt the column upwards, and you’ll most likely want to slightly lift and twist your trans shifter handle 90 degrees so that I can fit through the hole in the column more easily. Note that when you lift it, the button is spring loaded and will want to fly out, it very easy to reinstall however.

After that you can unscrew thee brass screws that hold down your shifter position indicator PRNDL and on the passenger side (RHD) there is a little white platic box with two smaller brass screws in it, this also needs to be unscrewed and placed aside.

Then you can unbolt the main pivot bolt that’s at the base of the shifter. The bolt head is a 14mm and the nut is a 13mm. At the ends of this pivot tube are the bushings that I’m replacing (the blue crumbly stuff is what’s left of mine lol)

 

[1998prado]

Also forgot to mention theres a small twist out light on the underside of the position indicator

 

[1998prado]

pictured is the set I used to replace these bushings, you have to buy two packs, but I got these at autozone. Otherwise you can order sets from plenty of toyota parts dealers.

The new bright blue are the bushings in place

The other picture is a peg that sticks out of the left side of the shifter, it needs to be in the position I have shown in order for things to work properly and for the bolt to be reinstalled into the shifter tube. I state this because you with have to move it out of place in order to get the new bushings into the tube. (I recommend having the shifter in neutral for all of this btw.) this little pin has a spring that pushes it up, the button at the top is what pushes it down, you may need to push it down to get it back in place.

After this everything is just reverse order steps.

The white box has two alignment pins to position it for you.

Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll try to keep tabs on this thread through the years

 

[Airbornepotato]

Does your 4wd shifter have crazy amount of excitement/vibration/play when in low rpm especially during idle at the traffic lights?

 

[javelinadave]

Does your 4wd shifter have crazy amount of excitement/vibration/play when in low rpm especially during idle at the traffic lights?

Mine does

 

[Airbornepotato]

Mine does

Tap here to see Video link shows the amount of vibration out of 4WD shifter
Here is mine. Been like this I think ever since I got this vehicle. Seems like not hurting anything.. wondering if there is fix for this? As soon as rpm goes above 1400rpm. Shifter will quiet down to normal.