6 speed sucks or me?
 

Im not new to the track but just purchased a new to me Miata with a 6 speed. I love the ratios but really struggle with the 4-5 shift when on track. I've zinged it a couple times grabbing 3rd instead of 5th. Other times I push it too far to the right and end up in the reverse gate. It has the Miata roadster shifter. There's just too much vagueness on the 4-5 movement and if I try to force it I end up going too far into the reverse gate and obviously end up fighting it back to find 5th. I'm at the point of going back to a 5 speed as I've never had this problem with a 5 speed. Just slam it to the right and forward for 5th. The car is a 90 with VVT and extras that puts 150 to the ground so no fear of overpowering a 5 speed.

I'm a pretty good driver, but this 6 speed really has me flustered. Any input on whether I suck or its just the six speed?!? Or maybe it's the Miata roadster kit? Or is there anything I can do to stiffen the reverse detent to make 4-5 more fool proof?

Or maybe you shouldn't be shifting like paul walker in the original fnf

My seat is lowered in the chassis about 2 inches. that was enough to put my arm in a wierd enough angle that shifting my 6 speed into any gear, is fucking horrible. my 66 VW bug has much better shifting than this turdbox.

I do battle with my 6 speed too. I think it is generally accepted that the 6 speed will never shift as nicely as the 5 speeds . Stiffer motor mounts will help to a point , and I'd like to see a stronger spring on the reverse gate as well . Its something I'm going to look in to when I have my spare 6 speed rebuilt . I'm looking into an alternate means of restraining the engine movement without inducing more vibration and noise into the chassis as my car is just a street toy .

It's gotta be the granny shifting and not double clutching!!! But seriously the vagueness drives me fricking bonkers. It's a non issue on the street, but when driving in anger on the track it's easy to push to far to the right or end up going back to 3rd! I'm hoping it's an issue with my 6 speed and not something inherent that I must learn to deal with!!!!

i am running poly diff mounts and awr engine mounts

BEATRUSH Rear P.P.F. Performance Bar for Miata 1994-1997 + mazda comp. engine mounts.

I have the same issue on my 6 speed and ended up learning how to shift slowly to avoid the 3 gear misshap (thank good for a built engine) .
Have to say that i drove a 30
min track session on brabor's car with a 6 speed and a long shifter lever ( not sure who makes it) and was much better than my stock shifter.

I have the same issue on my 6 speed and ended up learning how to shift slowly to avoid the 3 gear misshap (thank good for a built engine) .
Have to say that i drove a 30
min track session on brabor's car with a 6 speed and a long shifter lever ( not sure who makes it) and was much better than my stock shifter.

Same issue here on my '03! I thought it was me or the car. Glad to hear I;m not the only one. Will likely replace motor mounts, but not holding much hope....

You can't really shift these 6sp's fast. Some can, and some work perfectly for some magical reason, but most don't and won't. I've tried many MR setups, and while they feel cool they still, at least for me, did not actually fix this problem.

I can shift really fast in my 6spd. I did go into 5th instead of 3rd on the track once but that was driver error. It would have helped if the gates were spaced further part tho. I can never do a 6th to 4th downshift, I always go to 2nd instead but catch myself before letting the clutch back out thankfully.

I think a longer shifter would help a ton. Im looking at shift extensions right now. I am also surprised you are having trouble with the miataroadster shifter. People rave about those.

AIUI, the later the 6-speed, the better it shifts. Supposedly the MSM are the best of all. I have an MSM box in my NB1 now, and while it doesn't feel as good as my old 5-speed did, I don't have any problems with it shifting.

--Ian

This is true, but 5th is still completely vague even on both my super low mile, mint condition, unabused MSM's. Both shift like butter otherwise

My MSM's 6-speed was shite, now less shite with MiataRoadster long-angled SSK and stiffer motor mounts.

Prior to the SSK, I'd only find reverse 2/3 of the time, I just never knew if it was engaged or not (embarassing in car parks when trying to reverse out and hearing the gears grind loudly).

Since installing the SSK, I rarely miss a shift.

I despise this 02 6 speed so far, 6-4 downshift to pass people is indeed impossible. So many near money-shifts into second were possible I don't feel safe letting other people drive this thing as it is. Reverse needs to be slipped nearly all the time to engage. My 5 speed would let you know you weren't in reverse all the way, it'd tick as it bumped against whatever keeps it from engaging. Nothing like that from the 6, just numb nothingness and grinding should you try and move.

I'm not sure all this is worth the extra 50 ft/lbs the thing is supposedly good for. Rowing the gears as fast as possible is about my most favorite part of driving the miata on the street. This shit is just miserable so far.

Motor mounts better do something, else I think I'm gonna sell this NB2 for a NA8, or swap a 1.6 and 5 speed into it for the lolz.

You need to have the motorcraft juice, newish upper and lower boots and the bottom nylon bushing to really enjoy the 6 speed, oh and stiffer motor mounts.
I have gone through all these phases in five years and each one helps a little.
We never got a 5 speed nb so I never knew you can shift 6th to 4th in a miata.

Starting to sound like this is as good as it gets for me

not sure if mines a nb1 or nb2
running ford fluid
miata roadster angled long shifter
awr engine mounts
poly diff mounts

I'm fine on street and can feel the added resistance for the reverse gate. But on high speed corner exit pulling 1g it's hard to feel that same added resistance or the spacing between the 3 and 5 gates

5-6 is no problem, 6-5-4-3 no problem heel toe into a corner. My only complaint is the 4-5 shift and only on track. If there was just some way to increase the resistance or spring constant of the reverse gate!!! I really like the 6 speed ratios, but thinking 5 speed swap may be my best bet.

Do you guys get some gear whine in 1st? Trying to decide if I have a bad bearing or just the way it is.

I don't have issues with finding 4-5 as much as I have with 5-4 (keep getting 6th).
Seating position and shifter location matters probably (bent elongated MR on mine).

The 5sp I used earlier was easy to slam into any gear, unless the hand was operated by a brain working backward.

I've tried everything! Beatrush to solid motor mounts. Everything helped just a little. Never got great.

if someone can figure out which spring detent is for the reverse gate you can shim it with small ball bearing to increase pressure needed to get in the gate. IMHO if you can increase the force needed to get into the reverse gate the problem will be solved. Would love to do the same with 1-2 gate. Then you have an easy to work with H pattern.