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I wound up fixing my issue (for now). Turns out the bottom shifter bushing wasn't seated in there properly; one of the springs was probably making contact with the shifter **** and vibrating the crap out of it :P
This bushing is a PITA to replace, but it fixed my loose, rattling shifter. It's the plastic one in the actual selector that the end of the shifter goes into. I bought one new from my local dealer, cut it apart, and took the plastic bushing out. (I didn't want to pull the transmission just to replace a *#@!?$ bushing.)
I also need to replace that white plastic bushing in my shift selector. Mine has a piece chipped off near the top. Does that white plastic bushing just pop out of the selector piece?
I also need to replace that white plastic bushing in my shift selector. Mine has a piece chipped off near the top. Does that white plastic bushing just pop out of the selector piece?
Nope. It's pressed in. I had to carefully cut the new selector in half to get the bushing out, and I believe I used a socket on the end of an extension to press it into the selector on my transmission.
I may have a freak transmission but, my shift selector has no white bushing and the shifter slips in there without any end play. My trans has been rebuilt so I do dont know if the shift selecter has been replaced with a new bushless one or what but I can tell you the hole in it isn't that big and it has no bushing in it.
^ lol you don't (have a freak tranny). Mine is the same, and I've seen many like it. No bushing on the select rod end part, and no gap between it and the ball. A Mazda parts guy once told me only later cars had it (88 or 89-91). Not sure, cuz you know how info like this can be wrong. We need a poll, lol!
Weren't you working on some super duper shifter setup a while ago?
Whatever happened?
Yes! I drove around with the prototype in my car for about a year. It worked well. But like many things, after running the costs, it couldn't produce it economically.
Never heard of ones that lacked space for a bottom bushing. Mine's a 90 T2, and mine required a bushing.
Years back, I went to replace the bottom bushing because replacing the normal shifter bushings did little help to fix the floppiness/rattle. When I first pulled the shifter, I didn't realize there was such a thing as a bottom bushing and noticed it was missing on mine. Instead of buying the Mazdatrix part that DaBrkddy mentioned, I made my own bushing from PVC pipe. I remember taking my shifter into Ace Hardware and placing the bottom ball into different sizes of pipe until I found one that was a perfect fit with no room for the shifter to move side to side. It could only swivel on the ball itself. Furthermore, I guess I got lucky in that the outer diameter of the PVC pipe perfectly matched the diameter of the hole in which the Mazdatrix piece accepts the white bushing.
In the thread mentioned above, I made some measurements (though crude) for the new bushing.
The diameter of the bottom shifter ball is ~ 18mm.
The diameter of the housing that the ball sits in is ~22mm.
The depth of the housing is ~ 16mm
I ended up buying like 2 feet of the PVC pipe for about $1.00, thinking that the fix would not last long and that the bushing would wear out quickly. Over 7 years ago, I made the bushing, and it shifts very tightly and still works perfectly. I still have the leftover piece sitting in the garage.
