crazy canadians!

 

Stress testing involved hanging weights from each end, and seeing if it breaks in the middle. Took ~350 lbs, so it's probably fine.

Yes, I was concerned about it breaking on hard shifts. The linkage itself can handle it. I now just have to make sure the rest of the unit does as well. I'm out of welding wire and won't be by the welding shop for a few days, so no progress for a little while...

 

I wonde how hard is to shift? And is it because of that it is s Miata shifter and somehow it didnt't really match up real nice with our tranny?

 

its a throw short shifter, its suposed to shift hard. Less leverage more force.

its not that hard really once you get used to it.

 

yeah~ shory shifter is definitely harder to shift than stock, but with the miata shifter, how hard are we talking about?

 

you guys that have the miata shifter installed can you post some pics of it.

 

I had a short throw shifter on my car for about 1 day. Next day that **** came off. I have a feeling if you have never used one they are not the funnest on the street for daily traffic. My car is not a daily driver and it still was taken off. But I guess you will find that out for yourself.

 

yeah, our throws are already fairly short, you will only find shorter in much newer cars.
i think having new bushings is worth more than a shorter throw, but it has it's advantages i guess and it's all up to personal feel.

- Aaron

 

I realised there are 2 different kinds: one has a plastic cap on the end of the shifter that goes into the tranny and the other doen't has it.

the kit, which was tested, was the one with the plastic cap. but he needed to sand off some plastic to make it fit.

I'm wondering whether the one without the plastic cap would work?

 

I think you are the first person to say the stock shifter throw is short.

Shifting into 5th gear is like trying to punch the passenger in the knee!

FWIW I like my C's short shifter, no complaints at all.

 

Haha. You know how many times I have done that?

Sometime I go a little smoothly into 5th and accidently rub a buddy's knee ...which is a really uncomfortable feeling. We both grunt, spit and talk deep to make sure it was a fluke.

 

the shifter i used has 2 throws for the wussies on this thread, easy and extreme!


heh, sorry again for the delay its just been cooking in my shop the past week or so. over 100 degrees out there and i don't have much air circulation..

 

hehe, yeah the stock shifter is by no means very short, especially that 5th gear, i hit people all the time! lol

but hey, some of the crap i've had to drive...truck and toyota camry shifters are the worse!!
i don't mind the throw as much as the "notchy" and rubbery feeling, especially with worn bushings and what not.

man i got to shift a Honda s2000 transmission before and that was pure sex in my hands, 3 inches then *clink*

 

i swear sometimes when downshifting to 2nd or 3rd with the stock shifter i mess up sometimes because the throw is so long so it takes for ever to bring it down to second fast enough can someone post pics of there miata setup thanks.

 

ya'll know the FC shifter can be modded to be shorter right?? Its a 2 piece dealy, a buddy of mine made a write up eons ago and its really dang short... nice thing tho is you can choose how short you want it.. no sense in buying one after seeing how to mod the stock one.

 

So all I need is this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...spagename=WDVW

And a new set of bushings from mazdatrix and Im set?

 

all you need is that one kit and the upper bushing from the dealer, mazdatrix, wherever.


and i have read the DIY short shifter in the archives, IMO it is nice for people who like to tinker but it is not for everyone. looks to be at least a 3-4 hour project and costs ~$25 and plenty of room to screw up. these shifters cost around $70 and take about 15-20 minutes to do and you will have the option of having the ultra short throw miata style shifter or a mazdatrix style medium throw which is still a lot more responsive than the stock shifter.

 

Shortening the stock shifter is not a true short throw shifter. It may make the throw "feel" shorter but in order for the actual distance between the throw become shorter you must change the fulcrum point.

 

(Karack) can you post pics of the set-up on your car thanks.

 

A few thoughts :

Karack - thanks for testing this out, even though no 'true write up' this thread is about all I need.


OK - the saga :
The car: 1991 n/a Vert. with 107,000 Mi at time of work done. 2 Adult owners.

heh, first
What ilike2eatricers said, got to raise that fulcrum to get the true short throw.

My second thought

what triotary was saying about the two types of shifters. The type without the bushing on the bottom, and the type karack had to sand down. I guess that little bushing might be all important

Reason I'm mentioning this is that about 3 months ago I replaced all the bushings, and boots in my 91. I swear it was like shifting through nails and sand. Grind grind, no that's not the gears! I had the lower shifter bushing sitting around(picked it up new on the bay for like $3 along time ago) and fianally decided to do something about it. Searched online for the other bushings(that matched the fsm) and was about to order, when I thought just for the hell of it I'll wait till daylight and call mazda. Well there are 3 mazda dealers within 15 Miles of me, so I called all off them. Two of them ( had it in stock) were around $140++. I called the other dealership ( actually the one closest to me) they didn't ahve it in stock , but said they can get all of it brought in from another local dealership the next day. The cost for all the boots and 2 new bushing kits(spring/spacer and bushings) was only $90.27 Incl. Tax!! And I got it the next day. This was actually cheaper than anywhere I found on the net. Just goes to show sometimes Mazda can actually be OK.( I wouldn't let them put it all in though!!!)

Ok , back on Topic!
When I took out the old stuff I was expecting it would be bad, but it was insane. All the rubber boots had deteriorated into black goo, with most of it in the tranny!( or the turret anyways) I could see right in without even taking anything off!!! ( ok , the stupid hard shifting began to make sense)
Here's what it looked like - to my horror( I'm thinking the tranny is toast)


I took out all I could , then removed the shifter itself. The bushings had also turned into little pieces of crud. ( ok now the hard shifting really made sense) IT took absolutely forever to remove all the crap. I actually filled the turret with oil and changed it a few times, just to get the little tiny crap out.
Ok now to the thing I was getting at. The Stocker did not have that little bushing on the bottom. There is a little wire ( I'm guessing to hold the shifter in place a bit) that rubs against that little ball. Well , my shifter had a groove in it from the wire. Now I'm guessing it should have that bushing too. I filed the groove in the stocker down smooth , and put it all back together.

Just the imporvement of bushings made such a difference it was incredible( I'm sure mine was an extreme case of neglect- or do they all do this?lol)
I used a hack saw( I know) and cut about 1/2" off the threads ( with a nut already screwed on to help rethread it) and tapered the end a bit with a file, then cleaned up the threads. I know I still hit my passengers leg while shifting into 5th, but if it's a cute girl, it's not such a bad thing!

Ever since I did this change I have been thinking about putting the miata shifter into the car. Even got one out of the junkyard, just haven't messed with it yet.

So looks like I might just be in the market for a miata shifter! ( even if it's harder than stock it can't be worse than it was - trust me 2 to 3 second shifts!)


Coldfire got me thinking about this one. Truck shifters and Camrys! lolIt might take some of you back, but you're mostly probably to young to know what I'm talking about. My last vehicle( now project) was/is a 1971 GMC pickup. IT had straight farm sey up in it. ALL MANUAL. IT had a 3 on the tree manual transmission (the gmc 3 on tree got to be the worst design for shift linkage ever) and a worn out clutch. I was basically powershifting everywhere ya go.
So in comparison, the stock FC shifter is a dream!!
( but my dad's 2002 Saab9-3 5 speed- short, quick , and smooth like butter)


I guess it's all relative!

|M|

 

here you go nooblets:

https://www.rx7club.com/2nd-generation-specific-1986-1992-17/miata-short-throw-shifter-writeup-445796/

pretty self explanatory.


btw, that pic ^ really reminds me of the stock shifter throw and how semi-truckish the stock shifter felt comparably!