On further investigation I don’t think it is the exhaust spring as it opens and closes fine and I can’t hear any rattle from it when the engine is idling - so I’ve not even tried replacing it and my intermittent rattle could well be down to a bag of metal bits I had in the boot. And these metal bits relate to the job I did today and that is the replacement of the gear linkage bushes - and I have some stuff to say about that!
Now when we fitted the short shifter (which works very well I’m pleased to report) we discovered the gear linkage bushes were not easy to remove - or more specifically we found the larger bush that handles the fore and aft movement was not easy to remove - we didn’t even try the other one. However, after watching this YouTube vid we thought we understood how it all works…. But, whilst most of the vid is very helpful, there are a couple of bits of unnecessary instruction and one key point is ignored completely.
All the problems regard the bigger bush, the small one is softer and can be pushed out with your fingers (though it still pretty tight) and the linkage doesn’t need to be removed for this. The bigger one is actually moulded into the linkage and you have to break it free! Removing the end of the link, as suggested in the video is, by far, the best option. To press out the existing bush we used a big and a small socket and a large bench mounted vice. The smaller socket needs to be pretty small in diameter or the bush won’t flex enough to come out. The standard bush is already very stiff. When we came to press the (extremely stiff) replacement into place we found that heating it up with a heat gun made life a lot easier and also pressing it in without the brass insert - then add the insert after.
Refitting the head end of the gear linkage is pretty easy but there is a key point. The reason the pink clip has a half way release position is that it controls where the neutral position is. By adjusting where the clip sits on the ridged bar that runs through it you can move the gearsticks neutral position closer or further from the driving position. This is the bit the vid doesn’t mention.
The two bits of info that are superfluous in the vid are about the positioning of the larger bush - it doesn’t matter which way up it goes and it doesn’t matter which direction the moulding marks sit at. I can’t remember if he mentions the two washers that should sit either side of the large bush - these are zinc plated steel but Delrin ones would be better.
Anyway, to conclude, I wouldn’t recommend this mod - it makes almost no difference as the existing bushes are already pretty stiff. It’s true that the new Powerflex ones are even stiffer but I see you can buy solid aluminium ones and these look a lot easier to fit. Finally, Powerflex could have made these much easier to fit if they had simply moulded the larger bush in two halves…. I suspect the biggest change most will feel will be down to the fact they have randomly changed the resting position of the gearstick. If you are tempted by this mod I wouldn’t bother with the purple Powerflex bushes as I doubt they are much stiffer than the ones already fitted.