That boot with the pull tab is such a pain when reinstalling, I just took it completely off then put it back after bolting up the shifter.

In the pic of the Spoon shifter from GoTuning, you can see the the lower part of the boot with the pull tab and two accordion folds. Make a circumferential cut with an Xacto blade between the middle accordion fold and lower boot. Pull the lower boot up, off the shifter. Once it's back on, functionality is restored as a dust and noise shield.

 

maybe if you have sausage sized fingers

 

Just for anyone having trouble re installing the shifter - when you put the spring and the lever back into it's housing, push down and select reverse. The shifter will remain in reverse by itself, so you'll have both hands free to install the bolts. I think you can install two bolts like this, then put the shifter in neutral and install the last one. Easy..

 

i've removed the shifter twice now and it was pretty easy. the plastic ring was a piece of cake with the use of a flat head screwdriver (didn't even need the dental pick).

i can see it being difficult to reinstall the shifter though, but here's what i did to make it super easy:

1) line up the shifter
2) shove a small screw driver into one of the screw holes to keep the plate aligned with the hole
3) use needle nose pliers to insert a screw into a different hole then hand tighten the screw to keep the shifter spring compressed.
4) repeat step 3) for the second screw.
5) repeat step 3) for the hole that has the screwdriver shoved into it.

 

what is the cheapest place to buy shin-etsu and urea hi temp?
on hardtopguy, i can only find shin-etsu. It seems like everywhere charge around $10 for shipping; resulting in or around $40 for both? is that the same everywhere?

 

try ebay, i got both not too long ago for less than $30 shipped.

 

who was the seller? if you remember? i been trying to find some cheap ones on ebay too =(

 

I posted this on page 1...
[QUOTE]I ordered from "yourhondaparts" on ebay for $12.25 (Shin Etsu) & $8.20 (Urea) + $7.95 shipping = $28.40 (saved $23.46).

 

Just did this with my brother, The white ring was very easy to take out without breaking any clips, you just use a very thin screwdriver and work it from the inside being careful not to tear the boot! first we put 1/3 of the urea grease in and all around but 4th gear actually felt worse! so we took it off and used about 1/2 of the entire urea grease inside the container and everything was silky baby butt smooth =) thank you very much!

PS: Honda high temp Urea grease is $15-20 well spent, so don't go out and buy cheap grease. Do it right, or do it twice!

 

good write up !!!!

isn't it better to remove the center console?

so you will get more room to work gently on the plastic ring and operate those bolts......