I was replacing the shifter bushings and return spring on my 86 rx7’s transmission today and I noticed that the groove in the pivot ball on my lever has a lot of wear which was causing the shift **** to be able to slightly rotate back and forth. Which is annoying. The s5 rx7s have a bushing in the groove but the s4s do not which means it’s metal on metal. I figured while im here i may as well replace it with a short shifter. Ive done some research and it seems like the two current options are the 200$ option from mazdatrix or a cheap one off of ebay. From the forum crawling Ive done it seems like people really love the mazdatrix shifter and really recommend it over cheaper options but nobody said why. I am totally fine with paying for a better part but they look pretty much the same and i was wondering if anyone had first hand experience that they could share.

 

Additionally it seems like the s5 shifters have a bottom bushing in the shift block. Can you put one in an s4? Im looking to reduce wear and really tighten up my shifter

 

Someone else will have to comment on the quality of the Mazdatrix part, as my shifter is home-made. The reason I didn't purchase the Mazdatrix shifter is that there are reports that for some people it rattles. Not sure how common that really is. My home-made shifter rattles a little too, but at least I didn't pay much for the parts.

I can tell you that the bushing in the shift block is not interchangeable. The reason S5s use it is that the bottom pivot ball is smaller than the bore so it needs that bushing. Meanwhile the S4 has a larger bore, and also a pivot ball that is sized to it exactly.

Having tried to do this before (to put an S5 shifter in an S4 transmission), the diameter of the bushing is too large to fit in an S4 shift block on it's own. You would need to sand down the outer circumference of the bushing, however I did that too and the wall became so thin it deformed when installing and uninstalling. Trying to create such a bushing for an S4 transmission would require a paper-thin wall, and I doubt it would survive installation.

While we're on the topic, the number 1 biggest thing that will affect your shifting is the quality of the transmission fluid. Run a full synthetic in both the transmission and the shifter housing, and the difference will be quite noticeable.

 

Thany you for the very helpful response. I did quite a bit of research a while back and I run royal purple 75-90 in my transmission. Didn’t change the shifter housing though but im doing that now and will be using the same. Speaking of which. It doesn’t seem like the fsm has a procedure on filling the shifter housing. Any idea how much it takes? Also when you say homemade do you mean a converted miata shifter or something else?

 

I usually just fill it up to just below the bottom shifter bushing. Keep in mind the shifter itself displaces some fluid, so don't add too much. As long as the shift block is submerged it should be fine.

My shifter was an old eBay Miata shifter I had laying around. Don't know where it came from, I've never even owned a Miata.

I cut the pivot ball from the bottom and welded on the pivot ball from an S4 shifter I had around. Then I cut the threads off and added a much longer M10 bolt where they used to be (my shift **** has really deep threads), and then cut the body of the shifter in half and took out a bunch of the length.

It probably sits a bit below stock-height, but the throw is significantly reduced. I think the rattle is actually due to a leak in the shifter housing losing some fluid. It wasn't rattling on first install, but the shifter housing is wet and the rattle has been increasing. It's just a difficult job to do without removing the transmission (again) so I've been putting it off.

 

I have had no issues with the Mazdatrix shifter and have had it for 10+ years. If you use a small amount of your gear oil to lubricate the bushings, you shouldn't have any issues.

 

The claims about the rattle are true on my end, but it’s not really a bother to me. Besides that I love it, you can toss gears really quickly and it makes the experience a little more fun.

 

I have the mazdatrix short throw kit in my s4, and while I haven't gotten to really thrash on the car yet,I've been so far pretty satisfied with its fit and function.