I would say if your the kind of person that never climbs under a van
yourself, DEFINATELY necessary.
If your willing to lube the bushings even once a year (I do mine at least
twice), 5 min or less of work..... then it's not as necessary.
It just keeps the dirt and water out and the good clean grease in.

I have noticed a huge difference in shifting after a fresh lubing. A few
years ago being the cheapskate that i am, i took the main shift bushings out
completely, scrubbed them down and removed all the old dried up grease,
repacked them and put them back in. They performed 100% better. I have seen
the bushings wear to the point where they're pretty oval, but i think with a
little grease from time to time, they do just fine.

-Craig
'85GL turned WESTY

On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 10:25 PM, Allan Streib <streib@cs.indiana.edu>wrote:

> Last fall I installed all new bushings, boots, basically all the
> replaceable wear parts from the shifter base back to the transmission.
> I can't say it made a HUGE difference but the old parts definitely were
> caked up with dried out grease and dirt, and it did get nearly all the
> slop out of the shifter.  Still not as crisp and precise as my '91 Jetta
> was, but I guess that given the length of the gearshift lever and a
> linkage running nearly the length of the van, there's only so much that
> can be done.
>
> Allan
> --
> 1991 Vanagon GL
>