it probably looks harder to do than it actually is to do, its a nice half hour job, and you can have the engine running an AC on if its needed

 

Guys, I finally did it and I made a video!

Some notes I want to add. I have a Pettit Short Shifter in my car, and I can confirm that it is just an OEM shifter just cut down from the top. The Pettit shifter upper cup bushing (black) is the same as the lower cup bushing (black), both have the smaller notch as confirmed by 7krayziboi. The new replacement bushings from Ray Crowe uses the Upper Cup Bushing (Blue-wider notch) and the Lower Cup Bushing (Black-semicircle notch).

I was really surprised there was barely any gear oil though, so after replacing the bushings and adding the gear oil, it feels really good and I should asked myself why I didn't do this 5 years ago. The funny part was, I've removed the center console many times, but I got stumped when I saw this plug, I believe it is for the bose system of some sort (which I don't have) but I need someone to confirm:

 

Depending on the model/year, that's either for a Bose amp that was under the center console or a center speaker amp - my 94 had a center speaker amp under the center console.

Dale

 

Ok, so it's a non-essential plug. My 95 is a non-bose package. I would think the center speaker plug would be located somewhere in the front where the center speaker is. Thanks for confirming!

 

Just wanted to bring this thread back from the dead to thank everyone for their advice here. I noticed how wobbly the shifter was when I had the transmission out to swap out the clutch last year and added this to my to-do list. Since I had the seats out this year to recover them (update on that in a week or two!), I decided this was the perfect opportunity.
Couple of notes:
1) This really improved the shift feel! I took it for a quick spin around the block (I sat on a pillow, ha!), and the 2-3 and 3-4 shifts were soooo much smoother. There was still a small hiccup on the 1-2 shift, but even that is much improved since I drained and replaced the transmission fluid last year.
2) My shifter looked like the others here. I barely had any of the original plastic bushings left; I had to drill out the slotted one from the shifter. My lower spring was broken and my upper spring was missing.
3) Make sure you get the components installed in the right order! I missed the upper spring (since I didn't see it come off the car initially), so I had to pull the boot back off the shifter, which was a huge PITA. That practically doubled the length of this job. Otherwise it would've taken me 30-40 minutes.
4) I ended up just buying the kit from IRPerformance in the post above. I couldn't tell if the Petit kit came with all the pieces, and this one does. Came with both rubber boots and also a new piece of insulation.

 

Just curious, which part of the shift bushings/cups/caps usually disintegrates, cracks, breaks, or otherwise goes bad that results in the sloppy shifter? i.e. which is the weak point? (I would imagine either of the "white" plastic parts -- the bottom cup bush, or the white slot that goes in the ball slot?)

 

In my particular car…..

Broke with age: OEM nylon shifter lower bushing

Ripped/torn: lower shifter boot at the base of shifter stalk

Probably worn (but wasn’t really visible on mine): upper/lower bushing halves at the ball-pivot.

Visibly a bit flatter/lost tension: wave springs on the ball-pivot bushings

IIRC there was also the OEM nylon guide that came in my kit which I changed. I didn’t see any visible wear but it took seconds to swap.

Gear oil was changed and fresh grease added to those parts per FSM

 

It's pretty clear in this thread, just get all the parts and get it done. The failure points are mainly the plastic bushings, but the inner shift boot breaks, the spring washers loose their spring, it's just worth doing everything when you are in there.

Dale

 

Thanks, Dale!

I did a refresh this weekend because my shifter felt super sloppy, and for posterity, these were broken:
1) white plastic "cup" washer at the base of the small ball was shredded/broken into small pieces,
2) skinny/small inner rubber boot (with 3 bolts) had a tear, and
3) big outer boot (that has the 4 bolts in it) also had a small tear.

I had an RE-Amemiya D1 Spec shifter lying around (I had not previously swapped it in because I felt the OEM shifter was good enough), so I put that in. It came with a brass lower small cup washer thingy, which fixed the shifter slop which caused me to open all this up in the first place.

 

thanks everyone for convincing me to go ahead and do this rebuild! I went with the Pettit kit.

both of my wave washers were snapped and the bottom cup bushing had large chips missing all around the rim. the groove bushing and main shifter ball bushings were in good shape.




the kit came with what seemed like two upper-half bushings and two wave washers with tabs. it did not seem like the proper fit for the lower half, so I reused the old lower half bushing and clipped the tabs on one washer.

the new lower boot was impossible to pull over the shifter when dry, but a tiny bit of grease and it slid right on. lots of grease on the two ball/bushing assemblies also, and a small amount of 75W-90 syringed out and replaced with new fluid.

shifter feels great, can’t wait until it dries out a bit outside to go for a drive!

 

I took a flyer on the "iHave" bushing kit from Amazon. "replacement for shifter fulcrum ball bish set mx5 miata bravo" m502-99-178. The good news is that it fits (upper and lower bushing are the same piece) and is half the price of OEM. The bad news it that it's low quality. All the pieces are thinner, lighter or softer than OEM. I ended up only using two of the pieces.

 

Anybody have issues with the the carpet shifter insulation pad not fitting correctly? I got new parts from Mazda today, put it all together and with the pad on it seems like there's not enough space, my center console lifts a bit when shifting.

 

You need to have ALL the clips present and functional on the center console for it to be sturdy. Over time it will wear in and be a better "fit". It's a bit overkill honestly. I would just do without