Well it seems something has happened to my gear shifter. I can turn it in complete circles and when it shifts, it moves entirely to far over. Every gear still works and everything. When I move to first it will go over like I have a reverse gear. Besides that the car never grinds. It does seem to stick quite a bit though. I don't believe it to be the synchro or anything like that.

 

Could be the shifter bushings. If they are worn they will allow a lot of slop in the shifter itself.

 

Just took it apart and saw no bushings. Where can they go? Are they capable of just sort of being completely destroyed in there?

 

Were they ever there is what I would be asking. I can't see any way for them to up and disappear, unless it was those damn gremlins again. Get a new set of them from Mazdatrix.com or your local Mazda shop any competent parts guy can find them. They are cheap and essential. Also replace any rubber that is cracked or torn just to help keep the heat out.

You may even wanna go short shifter if you feel so inclined. Will come with the bushings and help keep the shift pattern a little tighter, not that it truely needs it in my opinion. But I don't have experience with the short shift, I only know my stock setup and it works well for me.

 

The guy who had my '88 RX7 before me really messed it up. He took out the A/C, Sunroof, Antenna and god knows what else. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if he took the shifter apart as well. I will be ordering the bushings right away so I can finally drive the car without problems.

 

LOL you said drive it without problems... Good luck on that one. I am j/k I hope it all works out for you and it runs 40k miles without an issue. The bushings were prolly removed by the previous owner, it sounds like he was a moron.

 

unless you got the car that way the guy before you did not remove them, if he had this problem would have been there the whole time.

Mine recently melted and cracked, allowing the shifter to flop over in 1-4th gears.
Put the new bushings in yesturday and I got my stiffy back

 

The previous owner was none to bright tho so I wouldn't doubt if they never even noticed that it was wrong to begin with.

 

your wording makes it sound like it just happened, the bushings are a wear item.
You would KNOW if they were removed first time you grabbed the shifter.

 

Good point. I thought the new owner had very recently purchased and just now noticed the problem is all.