I just bought a B&M short shifter clone from Top Speed (Japanese company). It does not come with the Allen head replacement bolts that come with the B&M. I would like to have stainless steel replacements ready for the install. Does anyone know the size of the allen head bolts that replace the 12mm OEMS? if so, please post here asap.

Thanks
Jeff

 

The 12mm bolts you mention is the head size not the bolt size. The allen you want is 8mm x 1.25 pitch but I'm not sure of the length. The original bolts are 3/4" long so if you compare the thickness of the B&M flange to the thickness of the stock flange which is 3/8" you will know how much longer they need to be. hope that helps

 

Thanks, I appreciate the time you took to reply to my question.

Your information is spot on. I just finished speaking with B&M who helpfully informed me that the bolts they use are indeed 8mm x 1.25 pitch and are 30 mm long.

Once again thanks for your kind response.

Jeff

 

Call garfinkle I think he has them

 

Hello Jeff , how many do you need ? Are they the 3 that hold the round plate the shifter pivots on ? IF so then they are 6mm x1 . pitch x ? length or maybe gar remembers wrong. He has both sizes for you any way, let him know

 

Thanks for the info, you guys are always right there for me when I need it. Tell David that I said thanks for the offer but I found the needed bolts locally. Please also let him know that I will be calling him soon about a pfc commander mount.

Rather than the three bolts on the retaining circle, the bolts I needed were those 4 bolts that hold the entire shifter unit to to top of the tranny case and according to jkekeisen and as confirmed by B&M they were 8mm socket heads with a 1.25 pitch 30mm long.

Once again thanks

Jeff

 

I've the B&M shifter. Just out of curiosity, who cloned who? I'm impressed with the B&M shifter and wondered who did the engineering work on it. It's like a M-14 rifle the way the sucker slides in and out of the gates....

 

I have wondered the same thing myself since I have seen advertisements for three different shifters with identical designs. The clones however are about 1/2 the cost of the B&M (admittedly they do not come with the new rubber boot, metal standoffs and $2.00 worth of socket head bolts ).

Assuming the Mazda parts department got the new nylon shifter bushing I ordered (The RX7 owner's motto should be "Be Prepared!"), I am gonna take some vacation time today and install the clone. I will post later as to the results and a review of the unit and install.


pomanferrari:
The Illuminas are fantastic since I replaced the OEM eye bushings with polyurethane ones. Thanks again for that deal.

 

Glad you were able to use them. They weren't compliant enough for me when I doubled the spring rate front and rear. I like the Konis better but I don't think they're just right yet (meaning compliant ride without the jerkiness ... may be it's inherent to a lowered 1.5 inches vehicle???)

 

OK
It was just too nice a day to spend it all at work when the parts were all waiting to install and I hate working on the car in the cold.

I picked up the new bushing at the dealership ( a big $4.54). For that kind of scratch there is no reason to reuse the original.

Based on some of the horror stories I read I was ready for anything but really hesitant. I removed the two circular rubber boots off of the shifter stalk and revealed the lower rubber shifter cover. I saw that I had a couple of small tears in the rubber but no big deal. When I removed the 4 10mm headed bolts securing the lower cover I eased the nylon ring and rubber up the shifter stalk and that is when I realized that there was going to be a huge gap between the hole in the OEM cover and the new stalk. The B&M style shifters are smaller in diameter than the ones supplied by Mazda, Mazdatrix, Peter Farrel etc. I decided that even if that was going to be a big problem I could remedy it with some customized grommets. (Worst case scenario maybe there would be a little more noise and a little less insulation right at the shifter handle).

OK now to the real work. I pregreased the new shifter ball and snapped the new busing into place. I also greased the outside of the new bushing and put the complete unit aside.

Next I needed to be ready for the bad part (according to posts elsewhere) removing the forward 12mm headed bolts that hold the shifter flange in place. I agree with others that this can be a difficult job...fortunately I had the correct tool--a 12mm crowsfoot wrench--and all four bolts were off in about 2 minutes start to finish. Once the bolts were removed, it was a quick tap with a hammer against the flange to loosen the old sealant. I next cleaned up the edges, added a little more 90 weight gear grease and used some Blue Permatex RTV.

Other than the great idea of using socket head bolts, the only trick I learned was that if you insert the passenger/engine bolt before you ease the unit into place, you will have no clearance problems...if you don't, and you put the unit into place without it, you cannot get that bolt into the hole without hitting the sheet metal on the passenger side.

Everything else was a quick reinstall of the parts and the entire job took less time than it has taken me to write it up.

Next thing was to take it out for a test drive.

1. Nothing is where I expected it to be so there is going to be a learning curve....especially between 3rd to 2nd downshifts and getting into reverse.

2. If you have a bad 5th gear synchro----be very careful. This shifter makes the grinding worse because of the speed of the shift... Take you time and be deliberate and there is no problem.

3. Unbelievable crispness (Pomanferrari is right, just like the crispness of a bolt action on a perfect rifle).

4. Outstanding feel ---If you don't feel the gates---take off your mitttens.

5. Just plain fun

6. Some rattles or noise that I didn't notice with the OEM but I would not notice unless I was looking for it. With the windows down or the radio on I cannot hear it at all.

Overall impression. Hell of a deal for under $110 total including shipping.

Thanks again for all who replied.

Jeff

 

The real B&M comes with a boot that is the diameter of the shifter so I didn't use the stock grommets but used the stock rubber cover to double up for sound protection and it's quiet as stock and not a rattle even with my urethane engione mounts.