Shift Link Bushing - Delrin or Aluminum?

[Brigand253]

My 2006 GTI has been a bit notchy when shifting from 1>2 and from 2>3. I changed the fluid tonight with OEM fluid and that helped some, but I can still feel some difficulty when making the above mentioned shifts.

I'm thinking my shift end link bushings may be worn. Car has almost 89K miles on it now.

I see that USP Motorsports makes a Delrin bushing. I believe Integrated Engineering makes an aluminum bushing. 42 Draft Designs also makes an aluminum bushing.

Does Delrin make for a better material here? Or would aluminum be preferred? Is there a such thing as too hard of a bushing material when it comes to shifter end link bushings? I already have aluminum shifter bracket bushings that I bought ages ago from Verdict Motorsports. Thanks for any info/advice you can provide.

 

[eurocars]

Aluminum would be better because fuck USP. Plus aluminum is shinier

 

[Brigand253]

Aluminum would be better because fuck USP. Plus aluminum is shinier

Now that I'm thinking about it more, I'm leaning towards aluminum. It's more impervious to the elements, heat, etc. You've had a bad experience with USP I take it?

 

[eurocars]

You could say that

 

[Brigand253]

I ordered the shift link bushings that ECS makes. Are these new? I visit their site often and don't remember ever seeing these.

I like that the brass bushing is all one piece versus two pieces like most other designs. We'll see how they fit/work in a few days.

 

[xSabretoothx]

Which part are you looking at? There are bushings for the shifter components and the actual base attachment.

 

[TimVFR]

Don't buy the aluminum shift cable bracket bushings. They are machined incorrectly for the bracket and will crack the stock plastic bracket, just found out the hard way.

 

[lippyjump]

My aluminum shifter bracket bushings have been great. You need to press them in correctly.

 

[Brigand253]

Which part are you looking at? There are bushings for the shifter components and the actual base attachment.

I was looking at the bushings that go into the cable end links themselves. ECS Tuning has a bushing now that uses a single brass piece for the bushing that contacts the shift pin.

It may not even matter, but I like that design vs. the other ones where the brass bushing is not a solid piece as it's incorporated in each of the bushing halves.

I got the ECS ones in and they seem to fit great but it didn't cure my notchy shifting.