It was recently brought to my attention (Jimny was a little irked) that I probably had one of the few new and original transfer case shifter seats in existence. Suzuki has discontinued them. Since I only have one and I’m going to need three in the near future, I decided to see what I could do about fabricating them out of readily available materials.
It turned out to be way too simple. First, I compared the LJ seat to a new Samurai seat that I had on hand. No way was the Samurai seat gonna be modifiable
LJ on the left, Samurai on the right.
After a short search through the plumbing supplies at my favorite hardware store, I ran across a tail piece gasket in the plumbing department that I thought might just work. A tail piece is the piece of drain that connects right to the bottom of a sink drain.
A little big, but what the hell. I then cut a section out of the tail piece with a pair of scissors until it would squeeze down to the same outer diameter as the Suzuki seat (about 1 ½”). Then I cut some notches in the vertical part of the piece so that it would fold inwards and simulate the molded radius of the OEM part.
With this ready, I then pulled out an old junk transfer case to try it on.
Then I removed the shifter stick.
Just push down on the collar, as shown, and turn it counter-clockwise. It should then lift right out.
Clean the recess really well and lube with either a light oil or some silicone lubricant (my choice).
Then install your newly prepared seat into the recess.
You’ll have to work it in and press down firmly to get the cut edges to form to the bottom curve. But they will.
Now replace the stick and you should be good to go.
After doing this, the stick felt good and snug and I think that this is a good replacement for a discontinued part.
I think that I’ll give this to Jimny and let him try it out, as his rebuild is a lot closer than mine and he doesn’t have one.
Hope this helps,
Smuz
03/24/06