Engine Stiff shifting with TRD quick shifter

Stiff shifting with TRD quick shifter

Hello Everyone,
I am new to this forum and live in Chicago, Illinois. I own a 5-speed 1999 Toyota Corolla LE. My first mod was the installation of a TRD quick shifter kit. I had previously driven my friend’s 2004 Acura TSX and my Brother’s 2005 Mazda 3s and liked the smooth short throws on both of these shifters. Therefore, I decided to change my stock shifter. However, after installing and driving with the TRD quick shifter, I noticed it was hard to put the car into 1st gear, from 1st to 2nd gear and 2nd to 3rd gear. Overall, the feeling isn’t smooth at all. It feels like I am grinding gears (stiff). The throw is shorter by about 15% - 20% percent; however I don’t think this compensates for the horrible feel when shifting gears. I was wondering if anyone else had a similar experience with the TRD quick shifter and if they found a solution to alleviate the problem. The kit did not come with instructions, so I installed the aluminum bushings in between the shifter housing and the bolt mounting holes on the sheet metal of the center console area. Is this right? What can I do to make shifting gears smoother? Should I buy a different shifter or bushings?

A solution that you may want to look into is a weighted selector modification.

Check it: http://www.understeer.com/cheapwsr.shtml

i also have the trd shifter. shifting through the gears works fine. the only problem i have is under hard acceleration it grinds going from 2nd to 3rd. other than that it is fine. did you reuse the stock rubber pads? get rid of those if you did. also check to make sure that the cables are connected properly, they are very tricky to connect.

Thanks for replying alby13 & rydog26.
I did not reuse the rubber bushings. Also, I do believe I connected the cables properly.