The bushinga are not sold seperatly through mopar ...to make it even worse they sell the shifter cables in pairs only 200$+ The bushings on the factory cables are a "hard plastic" to quote a parts guy...the booger bushings are molded from the same item...so ,same shape and yes a hard plastic...no performance gain...I do not reccomend the short shifter...like you said a grey area...as far as the rack goes...failure wise..could be a # of things...wrong fluid...old fluid...low fluid...age...I would'nt mess w/re-building the rack just get another one....oh and for fluid red line power steering fluid