Standard??? I didn't know that skateboard bearings came in sizes.

Yeah, they're all the same size. Rollerblade and skateboard. Wish more things could be like that.

Sweet I guess that answers my question, I just didn't want to get some that didn't fit. You guys know how it is

Check eBay (or any local sports shop that does skates) for inline skate bearings. Cheap as cheap.
http://dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=159494

thats a good idea man i have a whole drawer fool of skateboard bearings. i should hand them out at the meets or something... haha i knew skateboarding would pay off.

I cannibalized mine from some old roller-blades.

I went to a local skate shop and payed like $10 for 8 bearings . They work great and its so much tighter. I love this free mod

Do you put one or two bearings in each shifter linkage? Do the bearings have to be welded together/joined together somehow? I've got some spare bearings laying around and wouldn't mind tightening up the shifting a bit.

Put 2 in each, they don't have to be welded or anything. You should also put washers on the outside to make it so the linkage can't move around at all.

I just popped out the old ones with a screwdriver and used a C-clamp to push them in. They are super tight and will never loosen, definitely do this mod

Just wondering, what does this mod do?

Smitherines said:

Just wondering, what does this mod do?

Click to expand...

The cable ends are attached to the tranny shift arms by means of rubber grommets. By replacing the rubber isolators with bearings or the like the slop is eliminated and shifting is more precise and accurate. Sorry for the run on sentences.

Put 2 in each, they don't have to be welded or anything. You should also put washers on the outside to make it so the linkage can't move around at all.

Click to expand...

Sweet. Answered my question perfectly.

short shifter, base plate bushing upgrade, and the skaterboard rollers upgrade are the best things you can do to improve the shifting
it will be so crisp and smooth, you won't get out of the car for few days

Yeah, I've already got a B&M short shifter and the Symborski stiff shift kit. Those are nice; the rollerblade bearings are the only thing left for me to do, really.

Base plate bushings???? How do you do that mod???? Never heard of that mod.

Baseplate bushing modification.

http://www.infobottle.com/ShiftKit/shifter.htm

This is a good article while you're in there.

http://vfaq.com/mods/shifter3.html

will90Eclipse said:

Base plate bushings???? How do you do that mod???? Never heard of that mod.

Click to expand...

basically you replace those rubber bushings with polyurethane ones
rubber is squishy so it allows the plate to move

Ok

basically you replace those rubber bushings with polyurethane ones

Click to expand...

The Symborski kit (on Machv.com) is made out of metal; I want to say it's steel by the weight, but it could be an alloy of some sort. I think the argument between metal and polyurethane is one of metal being a little too stiff and causing a bit of clunky shifting, but I've never had a problem with mine. Shifts are crisp and smooth. Either way, once you pull off the console and move the shifter around while looking at how much the base plate actually moves, you'll want to replace them with ANYTHING but the rubber bushings.

Hey guys, I just wanted to post to my experience of installing my own metal shifter bushings. I just used some skateboard bearings that I took off from my skateboard that I used to ride a lot more. As you can see, they are nearly identical in diameter to the regular rubber bushings.



First, you just remove the cotter-pins from both bushings then pull them up off each of their brackets. Then take a screwdriver and pry the old rubber ones out. It takes a little elbow grease... at least it did for me because I'm a whimp When you're done with prying the rubber ones out, it should look like this.



After that, I noticed the metal bearings weren't going to go in without a fight, so I used these pliers to squeeze them as far in, and more importantly, as straight as I could get them.



Keep in mind they won't go very far in, you just need to squeeze them enough so they hold themselves in. After you get that far, just get a C-clamp and press them in the rest of the way.



After I got them pressed in, I realized there is some space on either side of the bearing between the bracket and cotter-pin, so I took a search in my handy washer bin to find some that are about the same size as the stock ones.



Here's what I came up with...



You need 2 between the bearing and the bracket, and 2 between the bearing and the cotter-pin. This is for each bearing, so using some advanced math, that's 8 total. However, this all depends on how thick the washers you get are. So, put 2 washers on the bracket, place the bearing on it, then put 2 more and re-install the cotter-pin. Just for reference, when I did it, the vertical bearing was a bastard to get back on, but just keep trying and use brute force and it'll get itself on there eventually.

Here is the finished product...



If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to PM me or email me at [email protected] I also have an AIM, it's DengarGreen. Best of luck to you all!

Another quick post, sorry. I was just wondering if anyone else has done this before?

Yes it's a fairly common mod.

Very good write up though. You can take some sand paper and sand the insides of the ends of the cables and that will help the rollerblade bearings go in easier.

I'm trying to do this...if this dude I work with will ever remember to bring in those damn bearings I've been telling him to bring in for the past 2 weeks! He's like 'what color you want?'..haha.

Awesome write-up, though. It'll help if you take a dremel with a sanding circle thing & sand the inside of the rings.