Loose Shifter
Senior Member
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 582
From: Tampa
You can get the bushings and springs from mazdatrix.com... it will cost around 45$ including shipping and takes less than 30 min to do the work.. just remember to put some oil down inside your "hole"
You'll know what i mean when you get everything apart
-Markus
"Sloppy shifter? HA. i use to be able to pull mine an inch STRAIT UP AND DOWN
You'll know what i mean when you get everything apart
-Markus
"Sloppy shifter? HA. i use to be able to pull mine an inch STRAIT UP AND DOWN
Junior Member
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 8
I put in a new bushing kit and it was STILL sloppy in neutral. There must be a centering spring somewhere that I missed.
Specifically, when the shift lever is in neutral, it has a lot of spring resistance when moving the lever from the center toward the right, but none at all when moving it from center toward the left...just flops to the left under it's own weight and stays there!
Then I dropped in the MZTX short-shifter and it still did, just to a lesser degree (because, of course, all movement is less w/ the short-shifter).
Finally --because I wasn't willing to live w/ this after spending upwards of $200. on it-- I ended up fabricating my own third bushing out of a piece of thick rubber floor mat. It's just a roughly 3 inch square piece of rubber that goes over the other two bushings w/ the left two corners tucked in under the sheetmetal. The hole cut into it, for the lever to go through, is offset far to the right. So (if you can picture this), most of the rubber in this third bushing is anchored left of the lever, thus forming a left-to-center return spring. It works, it's free, and I'm happy w/ it (no one can ever tell whats rigged up under that boot; they just know that the shifter feels good).
As for the correct centering spring, I never found it, and no one lists it anywhere as far as I know, which is odd, because it seems to be a very common problem...
...Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to provide a lot of detail, hoping that this will help someone.
Specifically, when the shift lever is in neutral, it has a lot of spring resistance when moving the lever from the center toward the right, but none at all when moving it from center toward the left...just flops to the left under it's own weight and stays there!
Then I dropped in the MZTX short-shifter and it still did, just to a lesser degree (because, of course, all movement is less w/ the short-shifter).
Finally --because I wasn't willing to live w/ this after spending upwards of $200. on it-- I ended up fabricating my own third bushing out of a piece of thick rubber floor mat. It's just a roughly 3 inch square piece of rubber that goes over the other two bushings w/ the left two corners tucked in under the sheetmetal. The hole cut into it, for the lever to go through, is offset far to the right. So (if you can picture this), most of the rubber in this third bushing is anchored left of the lever, thus forming a left-to-center return spring. It works, it's free, and I'm happy w/ it (no one can ever tell whats rigged up under that boot; they just know that the shifter feels good).
As for the correct centering spring, I never found it, and no one lists it anywhere as far as I know, which is odd, because it seems to be a very common problem...
...Sorry for the long post, but I wanted to provide a lot of detail, hoping that this will help someone.
Member
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 35
just got all my parts from mazda...yes mazda. the pt# on this thread is kinda backwards
top bushing set should be 8af1-17-4810 $8.45
lower bushing m505-99-1780 $7.25
middle boot kit fb01-64-490b $41.45
went to mazda and i didn't get raped
top bushing set should be 8af1-17-4810 $8.45
lower bushing m505-99-1780 $7.25
middle boot kit fb01-64-490b $41.45
went to mazda and i didn't get raped
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