just recently purchased a 2nd generation rx-7. the car is having a problem shifting into certain gears. it is a manual tranny. you have to shift like 3 different directions to get it into 1st , 4th and 5th gears. a friend of mine said i would need to replace the bushing on the shifter. just wanted to get a second opinion and see if anyone has experienced the same problem. how did you go about fixing it.

 

Usually if the shifter feels loose or floppy, the bushings are bad, check out http://www.mazdatrix.com under the FAQ section and you'll find information about it. If the shifter feels pretty firm and doesn't seem to have play, but just won't go into gear, it could possibly be a bad pilot bearing, but this is typically only 1st gear that it refuses to go into, so I'd do as was previously mentioned and replace the bushings.

 

Here is what is inside.

 

In every tranny I've seen with 100k+ miles that spring listed above is broken off and can get wedged randomly during shifting. There is the seat bushing as well that you can't see in the picture that the pivot ball (large ball rides on. It has a wavvy washer that it sits on to keep things from vibrating that breaks in half and falls into the shift area as well. The last tranny that I went into didn't have one piece of bushing still intact , there was chunks of ground plastic everywhere inside the housing yet it stioll shifted just very sloppy.

 

When I bought my 88 two years ago, the shifter acted up at strange times and wouldn't shift into a gear (randomly changed which gear).

I would have to redline it and then skip that gear to accelerate.

The wavy washer he is referring to was snapped in half and only 1 half was still present. It would get stuck and prevent the shifter from entering the position required to go into that gear.

Mazdatrix has the entire kit and good how-to guide on doing it yourself. Just be careful when removing the shifter surround. Mine was quite brittle and snapped most of the tabs off it. I also ordered a surround piece from Mazdatrix and the entire assembly is just like new. Firm shifting and looks good.

 

GREAT INFO GUYS!
WOO HOO

 

just incase, i would take the shifter out, and put it back in...that actually helped a lot with mine....hahha

 

i have an 88 vert my shifter gets stiff every once in awhile. but it gets loose after awhile. and when i shift to reverse it makes a grinding noise sometimes.

 

Ever change your gear oil?
Put in synthetic gear oil - makes you tranny think it's 10 years younger!