so, the other day while driving, I downshifted from 4th to 3rd, and then had nothing. The trans only had neutral, no shifter gates, nothing. No big deal, just a pain in the ***, right? Broke the roll pin that holds the gear selector to the shifter rail, right? Nope, I managed to break the 1/2" dia. shifter rail flush with the gear selector finger. So my question is, has anyone else ever run into this problem with a TII trans. Also, I have the cheap miata short shifter, so I have even less leverage than a stock shifter. If nothing else, can anyone direct me to a source for a replacement shifter rail?

 

So, upon further inspection, what it looks like is the shifter rail itself was made faulty, as no human should be able to shear a 10mm hardened steel shaft like I did. I'll post pics later, but as for right now, I get to go to the dealer to get a new shifter rail for $61.

Also, on a different note, can anyone interpret the mazda FSM as to how to remove the shifter rail from the shift control box, as the instructions they give make absolutely no sense to me or anyone else as of right now. I know that the roll pin has to come out of the "thingy" that the ball end of the shifter goes into, but it seems to be sealed on the one end, so I've no idea how to get it out aside from drilling it out. Please help me, as I'm just lost here!

 

C'mon, anyone? Help? Please?

 

Okay, I'm a moron. I had the shifter rod turned in a manner that the roll pin bottomed out on the shift control box, but now I have a picture to show what happened! FYI, these 2 pieces are supposed to be one and welded together. Looks like poor steel quality is at fault here.