RustyGent

iTrader: (9)

I did a bit a searching and couldn't seem to find anything about this so I thought I would do a little write up about my around the world shifter.

Issue: Car is suddenly stuck in 5th gear and I can move the shifter in a full 360º circle. Women in passenger seat is thoroughly not impressed.

While waiting for my tow truck I had plenty of time to remove the panel and shifter just to check to see what carnage might of happened.


Two of the Three shifter mounting bolts pulled straight out. Apparently someone had over torqued them down so tightly they completely removed most of the threads. The bolts had been wiggling around for some time and had bored out the soft aluminium.




-This in turn caused my magical shifting problem do to the extra flexing. Kinda missing something important here.



-After talking to some more RX7 experienced people than my self I went fishing for the dowel pin. Found it but its seen MUCH better days. It had become squished and lost its flexing for the interference fit. Which caused to slip right through when I tried to reinstall it.

Fixing the dowel pin:
-Filed down rough edges
-Stretch it out so it could stay in place.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS AS A PERMANENT FIX
I believe you should always replace a dowel pin if damaged or worn.
I only did this because it was a weekend so the Mazda dealer would not be open (If they even had the part. I have no clue) and I needed the car by Tuesday and it will be getting a new transmission anyways.



-Dowel Pin installed. Took gentle tapping with a punch.


-Next was tapping the worn holes. I didn't drill out the holes due to my lack of a larger tap and the already pre-smoothed holes. The tap I used worked well enough for a temporary fix. Using matching Home Depot bolts did the job.


-Apparently there's more than one rats nest in my RX7


-So I decided make a new one from some insulation found at Home Depot. Little bit of dried spray adhesive on the sides to make sure everything stayed together while installing.


-Some new sealant and ready to put everything back together


Result: Shifting is smoother than before and quieter. Driven it a total of 5 miles or less so far so I'll let you know how it holds for the next 2 days before the swap.

Hope this never happens to anyone else but if so I hope this helped.

rlee429

iTrader: (25)

I would recommend you take out that insulation, I believe it is made out of fiberglass O_O. With all the shifting, your going end up breathing in fiberglass (health hazard).

Did you notice your arms itching yet?

I know that "rat nest" you found can be cheaply purchased from Mazda, or go to any auto upholstery place and ask any small left over pieces of jute. I know i had some leftover insulation when I was doing my carpet that I can give you, if I swing by my buddy's shop again, if you pay for shipping..

RustyGent

iTrader: (9)

At that it is and point taken. Cheapest stuff I could find at that moment. And no I've worked with fiberglass enough to know not to use it as a loofah

I'll pass buy a shop in the near future to get some. Thanks for the offer tho.

To clarify this is a temporary fix.

RTS3GEN

Is that really a lead acid liquid battery in the rear compartment? Or am I seeing things?

RustyGent

iTrader: (9)

That's a "I didn't put it there" battery.

I'm glad the original subject matter is important here.