bajaman

I drove the FD to work yesterday, and noticed the shifter was getting 'notchy', kind of loose. Those familiar with these cars with automatics understand you basically manually shift them when you desire decent performance, so...one is working the shifter quite often, along with the 'hold' button.

I am getting ready to go look at it, I actually have a new shifter I have been wanting to put in anyway, as it is in pristine condition with all the letters and numbers in the shifter nice and new and not faded/cracked.

I'm just kind of wondering...what could have loosened up or whatever?

cptpain

iTrader: (1)

im thinking since the shifter is attached to a "base" on the tranny, that it is made of nylon or some kind of plastic, that it will eventually wear down over time from use.

on my work truck, the plastic base that the linkage attaches to, completely broke off leaving the truck in D

kinda like how the shifters in MT's get loosey-goosey on the nylon bushing... which is replaced semi-easily with a new nylon/plastic bushing or a solid aluminum.

i'd like to have an AUTO FD..... to use as a daily. and the MT for play time

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

I vaguely remember the years when I drove the car with an automatic and I think I had an issue like your talking about. I want to say that once you get the console up there are a couple bolts that can come loose. I would say just check the obvious first and make sure everything is tight if you haven't already done that.

And I think the linkage is metal on the auto trans, but you could quickly check it by popping under the car and make sure it's tight

you can kinda see it here

jeff p

Hey Bajaman, gotta love the fading and cracking of the gear selector decal. I have the same problem and got a new shifter cap to replace it. I think the shifter neck screws are put in with liquid lock stuff they seem to be in very tight and I don't want to strip anything. let me know how your goes and give some advice on how to remove it. I think we need to put some kind of heat shield in the trans tunnel to prevent the shift indicator decal from fading again I think heat is causing our problem with the cap.

Jeff

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

yea that drove me NUTS about the shifter decal fading/cracking because it looks really crappy and brings down the image of the car

jeff p

have you put a pfc in your car with the banzai racing auto ecu harness yet!. I installed mine several months ago and everything is working like stock with the trans. hope this will add to longer life and better tuneability for our cars and get rid of the auto bashing on the forum. going in for a pfc tune in two weeks, I'll see what kind of numbers the auto trans can hold.

Jeff

jeff p

mine looks OK during the day. but at night with the lights on and the indicator illuminated it looks like sh$$ and the cracking realy shows.

Jeff

bajaman

Ok, here is the problem....the bushing to the shift linkage is just...gone. See the picture.

I have a whole **** LOAD of info on the problems associated with the shifter removal and more specifically...the replacement of the indicator panel. Guys...you won't BELIEVE some of the **** you have to go thru!
I'll do a write up with pics soon.

TpCpLaYa

iTrader: (10)

sweet...in a sense

MOBEONER

iTrader: (18)

my auto transmission is got a whole load of problems including the loose shifter,i was going to fix it but ended up just saying f*ck it,i am going manual....

jeff p

can't wait for the write up it will be a great help to everyone. I knew it wouldn't be easy . nothing on this car is. LOL... what is needed to fix the shifter bushing? I bet the way its designed you will need to remove the transmission.. just joking I hope.

Jeff

bajaman

Nah, actually Mazda was smart, you can pull the entire shifter assembly up from inside the car, there is just a cotter pin and washer to remove. I am going to hit some parts stores looking for a suitable bushing but imagine I will just end up ordering one from Mazda.
While I was at it, I refinished my center console as it was looking like hell. I discovered the light bulb in my security system indicator was burned out...so I guess I have to get that from Mazda too.

I'm going to start on that write up for the shifter indicator panel replacement. Talk about a hassle...sheesh!

jeff p

how hard was it to replace just the shifter cap? thats all I need to do right now.

bajaman

Well...hard. Actually now that I know what to do...not so bad but it was figuring out ONE thing that made the difference. To do it, you have to take the shifter out, and one of the (crazy as it seems) hardest things to do is to take off the shifter selector ****....more on that below. Basically you do the following:

1. Remove ashtray
2. Remove center console cover - pops off from the back and lifts up
3. Remove the four nuts that hold the shifter to the transmission tunnel.
4. Disconnect large white wire connector
5. Lift up shifter to give you access to the linkage.
6. Remove cotter pin and slide off linkage
7. Pull shifter out of car

Now, this is where the seemingly simple became a bitch. To get the shifter selector **** off, so you can change that indicator cap, you need to remove the two screws at the front of the ****. This will allow you to pull the **** off the shaft. Carefully note how the wire for the HOLD button is routed around the little pegs and posts. Now remove the 4 screws that hold the cap in place, you will see how everything is sort of restrained by the hold wires. Now comes the 'fun' part. You have to remove the wire terminals OUT of that large white connector...and the FSM does NOT explain one key thing. It simply tells you to use a small piece of metal to depress the plastic tabs from the terminal side and slide the wires out from the rear. What it DOESN'T tell you is...you have to first pry up the back of the white plastic connector to even allow this to take place. When you pry the little cover back, it FULLY exposes the backs of the wires. Then you can take your pick or wire (I used a very, very small jeweler's screwdrive) and depress the tab that holds the terminal ends inside the connector, and then slide the wires out of the connector. Note how the wires go in, by the way so you can return them to this same configuration.
With this done, you can now fully take off the **** and thus the cap. Now all you have to do is to replace that cap or, you can actually take off the indicator panel from the bottom side of the cap and just replace that if you want.

Here are a couple of pictures of the connector that you have to pull the terminals out of. Then on other pages are some disassembly pics. Note the circled are on the 2nd photo is the rear cap of the connector you MUST lift off to expose the rear of the wires.

bajaman

bajaman

bajaman

jeff p

wow! didn't know yo had to remove the whole shifter assembly . I thought all you had to do was remove the two screws on the shifter arm and unscrew the cap. its a lot more involved than I thought . Thanks for the write up it cleared things up.

Jeff

bajaman

Yeah, if Mazda had made it to where the shifter **** came off without having to detach that wire, or if the wire attached differently...then it would be a lot easier.

RLaoFD

iTrader: (6)

This would have been good info for me when I had my auto tranny. Although I have since changed the transmission, I did enjoy the automatic tranny and a lot of people didn't appreciate it as much as I did.

This is a very informative write up to aid the automatic owners of these cars because I truly believe the cars aren't represented enough because there ARE a lot of differences between the two. I mean this in not only how the car works, but different little components here and there in the engine bay.

thanks for sharing the info!

jeff p

how long did this take you to complete?. do you need to go under the car for any parts removal ?. I would hate to get into this and then need to jack up the car to get underneath to finish the job. I have a complete shifter assembly that I could just R&R it should be plug and play. I am thinking about taking the cap to a decal / printing shop and see if we can get some decals made. so in the future we will no have to replace the whole cap.

Jeff

bajaman

No, you don't need to jack up the car...everything can be done from inside the car.
If you have a complete shifter assembly, this will be easy. Take off the console, remove 4 nuts, disconnect one electrical connector, pull the shifter up and disconnect the linkage, and then do the reverse with the new unit.

Thirty minutes tops.

jeff p

great! this will be a big help when I complete my interior upgrades. going to paint all the plastics at the same time I replace the shifter. Thanks Bajaman for the write up. you should send this to Dale Clark so he can post it in his how to section. he has a great write up on door panel removal as well.

Jeff

bajaman

Just glad to help out. I wonder what the best way to get a hold of Dale is? I did a search for 'Dale Clark' and got nothing....

MyRedFD

iTrader: (1)

It's one word, DaleClark