So I was sitting at a stop light yesterday. Tried to put the car in 1st and the shifter felt really loose and sloppy. I have had my AF SS in for a good while now.

So I push it into a parking lot. No leaks, no grinds, no noise, etc.

Well I took the shifter off, the piece of plastic at the bottome cracked into pieces and half of it is still on the shifter and the other half broke off and is in the tranny.

What is the warranty on the shifter and should I be worried about my tranny?

 

My quick and uneducated guess would be YES!

Foreign material in the tranny sounds really bad.

 

I believe RP will replace your shifter and you should definitely be concerned about your transmission.

This isn't the first time this has happened either. I believe he's put out several editions of the shifter and later ones corrected for this. When did you buy it and did you get it directly from AFE?

 

wow, this is scary. Richard Paul did make new bushings on his current supply of shifters.

I don't know what you can do about the part that dropped inside the tranny unless you have it taken apart....

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the piece that fell off inside the tranny, it is only plastic remember. That little piece will just get ground up and when you change your fluid it will all come out. Get with RP though and he should be able to hook you up with a new bushing, granted he has been real low on brushings as of late but he still may be ale to help you out. Go ahead and throw your stock shifter back in and get back on the road.

 

I just got the new bushing design. It looks pretty solid. Actually, it doesn't look solid, since it's transparent But it feels solid.

I'll post pics later tonight.

 

I had that happen with the original delrin bushing...it has caused no problems after 30K miles .....The newer bushing looks like it won't do that...Richard will send out new ones if it is defective.

There were tiny plastic chips in the oil when I flushed it out...but no problems ever came of it

 

talk to Richard, he'll take care of you.

 

i wonder if this is the first version? only a small batch was sent out.

I bet it belongs in this group.

 

I had a bushing fail that was not in the first group. Talk to RP and he'll either send you out a new bushing or you can pay to ship the shifter back have it installed and shipped back.

He's very fast with his repairs, I think mine was gone for a total of 3 days and it was over a weekend.

 

hmm, i should take it out and have a look at mine. might wanna get the new one. is the new bushing a different design or material?

 

first type was black
second was yellow
third is clear

i just tried out my car, i'm glad to have the sts back! feels smooth like butta.

 

that is interesting,

the yellow one i think had some kevlar in it.. that might be a concern.. would do a good trans flush.

to those that have had this problem. did the shifter get loud before it happened?? as mine just got loud about 2 weeks ago.

beers

 

The firrst ones were Delrin and that didn't last. The replacment were Kevlar but it is brittle and can crack if you hit reverse hard down. So the latest ones are a glass filled Nylon either 6/12 or 6/6. They both seem tp be working well as they bend without cracking. The next trick is going to be Nylatron.which is the same with MDS added. These will be grey if you wind up with one. We haven't tried those yet, although one is in my car now.
If you ever have a problem we will replace it for free. If you just want the latest material we will have to charge you something, to cover the labor and shipping.
If you have a broken one send it in you will get first service. If it's not broken give me some time to test out the new materials and find the best one.
Right now there are no shifters or bushings available. Sometime in the next few days. The sticks are ready we have no polymer parts yet. The lathes are full.

 

I already asked RP to PM me when he has some extra 3rd gen bushing. Mine is fine now but I want to have an extra in case I need it. But I don't want to take any of the first ones from people who need it now.