the "sloppy shifter" issue relates to a locating bolt on the shift lever which breaks down inside the transmission (not the transfer case) and causes the shift levver to be kind of loose (or sloppy). It can cause you to have to (for instance) move the lever WAY far over to the right to get 5th and reverse gears. The shift pattern is not exactly sports-car tight and small, but the lever going into each gear should be a fairly decisive movement and sensation, rather than having to kind of freely shove the lever to where you get used to finding the gear. I dunno..its hard to descibe to someone who isnt used to shifting manually [img]images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Any one of us "veteran" samurai owners could tell you in .5 seconds if you have the dreaded "sloppy shifter" but its not obvious to someone who doesnt knwo how its supposed to feel! It doesnt prevent you from shifting, either. I know when I got my Samurai it had some of the problems you are mentioning, including this one.
The sloppy shifter fix is just a special little bolt with an unthreaded portion at the end. You take off the boot for the transmmission shifter, and then the inner boot, then the little tower thing the shifter lives in, and pull the shifter out. The remainder of the broken bolt is usually still stuck in the shifter, but if not it has dropped into the trransmission and you might try to use a telescoping magnet to fish around inside the transmission and recover it before you replace the broken bolt and put it all back together.
I was pretty green mechanically (and still am) when I did that fix on my truck shortly after I got it. I managed to get it done in about 10 or 15 minutes going really slowly and carefully and it was obvious how things fit together and how they reassembled, etc.
If you attempt it, just dont tighten the bolts on the little tower down too hard..the transmission is aluminum and as metal goes its pretty soft and easy to strip out or deform.
The transmission bushing is the same as the shifter sheet, just for the transmission instead.
check out this link:
Trail Tough
on the 'transmission' page you will find the shift bolt (sloppy fix) and also the trans bushing. if you click the 'transfercase/driveshaft' link the shifter sheet fo the transfer case is at the bottom of the page.
Nearly every vendor sells the same replacement stuff (petroworks, rocky road, north coast offroad, etc) I only mention Trial Tough since i have done business with them several times and can recommend their service and products.
~daxe