Last night I was removing the transmission so I could put in a new clutch. Upon taking off the starter, there was a wire just hanging there that looked like it should be a ground for the starter. I have never had any problems with the starter and don't think this is a ground for the starter since it always worked. I have attached a picture of the wire and was hoping someone could tell me what it should attach to so I can put it in the right place when I put the tranny back tonight.

The other question I had was there seems to be a small leak where the drive shaft attaches to the transmission. Underneath the shifter there is oil that looks like it has been splattered around by the spinning driveshaft. It doesn't look like is is a big leak and I have never been low on transmission fluid. Is this something I should worry about or is it pretty normal?

 

To answer your first question, that is the condensor for the oil pressure gauge. I found mine hanging like that too. Usually, the car gets the tranny serviced and the shop doesn't put it back correctly. Just put it back up in the engine compartment and bolt it to the driver side slave cylinder bolt. Just remove that bolt, put the condensor on top of the bolt hole, run bolt back through and tighten...takes ~3 minutes.

For the second question, your shifter is probably leaking and not the tranny. There is a little boot that seals the bottom of the shifter to the tail housing that gets busted and allows a tad of fluid to push out over the top when you shift gears. Nothing to be greatly concerned about. The little boot isn't super cheap if i remember correctly, but you should probably get in there and replace it along with the gear oil in the tailhousing where the shifter is located.

 

Thanks for your help!

Would Mazdatrix have that part for the shifter?

 

They do.

Here is the part...

http://www.mazdatrix.com/getprice.as...m=17-480A-M513