a reminder to those of you with sloppy shifters..(please read)
 

fix the problem before it becomes a real problem.

http://img247.imageshack.us/img247/1...e0607lq.th.jpg

yes, that is metal debris from the shifter pivot. this shifter mechanism binds up but can be repaired, only by removing the transmission and cleaning out the assembly thoroughly and adding lubricant. if your shifter is even remotely sloppy then i suggest investing $25 and replacing the bushings and adding gear oil to the assembly half way up the shifter slide bore to aid in shifting and prevent excessive wear in the mechanism. if you let it go you may wind up needing to remove the transmission and flush it out or worse you may wind up with bound linkages that may require a transmission rebuild.

My shifter is really sloppy on the left side, its like theres no spring at all, it just kinda falls over to the left. Moving the shifter towards the right there is good spring tension, its weird. I really know nothing of transmissions so if you don't understand what I mean I don't know how else to tell you ;)

$25?

Local mazda dealer has top and bottom for $4.95 each.

see the curled spring on the top of the shifter assembly? that is your left to center centering spring, it tends to break off and cause what you are feeling. the problem i am describing is sloppiness in any gear. basically if you push down on your shifter knob then pull straight up, if you feel any movement at all you probably are missing one if not both of the bushings for your shifter. that is what caused this problem, both bushings were totally gone, one of the spring washers was outside of the housing completely...

it only takes a few minutes to pull the whole thing apart and inspect it so i suggest to everyone who has never had their shifter apart to at least inspect it.

i paid $7 for the top, i assume the bottom is the same price, the spring washers are a couple of bucks and the gasket a couple more add in gear oil at $6-8 and i was pretty modest with the estimate..

a bit better than mazdatrix who wants nearly $25 for both bushings alone shipped!

mine does the same thing, but it's not sloppy, it just has no spring from the left side, but the right is springy..
and every rx7 I have been in does the same thing.. I dont know if it's supposed to be like that, but maby it's because there isnt as much distance between 1-2 to 3-4 as there is between 3-4 and 5-R

or maby just every one I have felt is just missing that spring?

My shifter just fell apart at random one day. Not the bushings, but rather the rubber that seperates the lower and upper halves just up and seperated when I shifted. Imagine my surprise when going from 1st to 2nd and having the shift knob fall to the center council. Luckily I figured it out quickly, pulled the top of the shifter and the boot out in one quick swipe and used the little stub sticking out until I could get home to fix it temporarily. I'm gonna be ordering the HIGGITrix short shifter (which, BTW, is a single peice, as opposed to the mazda POS) on tuesday.

Yeah, mine did the exact same thing. This was after putting in brand new bushings. Before that, the thing was extremely sloppy all over the place.

the spring tends to break as it is a weak wire sping, you can see it in the picture above. one of the very few out there original that still has this spring in one piece still... it is a pita to fix as you need to remove the transmission and tear apart the shifter housing to replace it.

Mine is completely fucked... If I push my shifter over to the right, it will immediately fly back over all the way to the left, as if by the hand of god... lol

If I wanna downshift to third, I have to go to second first so I can line the syncros up, or it will grind since my bushings are non existant...

Also, shifting to 5th isn't straight over like it's supposed to be... I actually have to push it over, and then hook it back around to the left for 5th to engage properly...

And lastly, I was sitting there in traffic one day spinning my shift knob around, when I thought about the fact that I have a threaded stock S5 knob... It shouldn't keep spinning like that (clockwise), so I felt the lever through the boot, and realized it was my entire shifter that's spinning freely... I know this is bad... :( lol

$4.95 each?!??!!

Are these the white and blue ones with the wavy, round springs???
Willing to ship a bunch to Hawaii? :D


-Ted

Mine too! sloppy on the left side-hopefully getting it fixed today though!

mine wasnt too bad when i fixed it....i payed 11$ for the bushings at mazda....not bad now it shifts great and it aint all wobbly like it was...lol

Here is a marked up cutaway drawing from the factory manual for an S5.

The S4's don't have that bottom bushing or the plastic keyway bushing in the pivot ball.

http://208.62.166.66:82/guest/pics/shift.jpg

Here's a picture of the centering springs:

http://208.62.166.66:82/guest/Shop_M...ft springs.JPG

Nice pics Sureshot. Thank you.

It's strange but true Ted. I don't know where this guy was getting his but at my local dealership (Vancouver Mazda here in Southern WA) I got all of them blue, white, both wavy spring deals and all the shims for like $11 after tax.

I had heard they were really expensive and either the guys at the parts counter here are stupid or the prices are really that low.

yeah my bushings are shot in my new car i need to replace them.....

man when i first got one of my cars i couldnt get into reverse, turned out the cover to one of those springs was really loose with only 1 bolt into it

Hmmm... yeah. I just ordered some new bushings... I shift like this:

>||

instead of

|||


Hopefully this will help.

I don't have a centering spring??? What happens if you don't? Mine is sloppy as hell after I put in my short shifter. was fine with the original shifter but when I went to the ss it in time 100miles or so got very loose.

I have that same issue. :o

mine dose not lean one way or the other, dosn't have a problem going into gear, it's just not springy at all i can move it around while its in gear almost as much as when its in nuteral.

Do i have the same problem?

Different problem. You need new shifter bushings.

Have you guys checked your return spring for that side? I missed that one when I installed my short shifter and had to take it all apart again to get it to spring correctly. A lot of time you bump it off or move it too much when you are replacing bushings or putting in short shifters or whatever.

could someone post all the bushings part #s I will need from mazda I have S5 transmission which doesn't grind but is really sloppy