I've had a MiataRoadster shifter for several years now and I love it. I have the "bent" one that puts the shift ball very near the steering wheel and it's a wonderful piece of kit....that is, until it's not. About 6 months ago one of the two pins in the riser plate backed out and the shifting got pretty sloppy. I found the problem and pushed the in back in and secured it in-place with a hose clamp around the riser plate. Yeah, it's a ghetto fix, but it's a fix.

All was well - I thought - until I went to a track day at Road Atlanta. Shifting "with vigor" was impossible because I was missing upshifts and downshifts which proved to be very frustrating.

After getting home, I disassembled the shifter and discovered that the cut-outs in the lower bushing were chewed up and the pin bushings in the shift ball were also chewed up. My guess is that they got destroyed when the pin in the riser plate backed out which caused the lower bushing to move around.

Whatever the cause, I need to source that lower, extended bushing and the pin bushings in the shifter ball. I'm guessing that the pin bushings can be replaced with "standard" pieces. But the lower bushing is a MiataRoadster-specific piece. If I had access to a lathe, I'm fabricate my own piece from a block of Delrin - but I don't. And no one seems to make replacement pieces that I know of.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

Last time I needed one of the delrin bits replaced I reached out to Bill @ miataroadster directly and he sold them to me. Wasn't cheap by any means, but better than the Apple approach to product support.

 

Yeah. I sent an email. I'll wait to see what the "damages" are.

 

He sells just the durrlenn bushes
https://miataroadster.com/products/o...r-tip-bushings

 

Not the tip bushing (why do I feel dirty having wrote that?), the deep one (red square) that goes under the riser plate (blue square) that captures the shift ball between it and the upper shift ball bushing and locates it on the pins of the riser plate.

 

I hereby submit to you one of the best examples of customer service I have EVER encountered.

I emailed Bill at MiataRoadster about my situation and let him know - unequivocally - that the damage to the shift "system" was entirely due to me not discovering immediately that the pins in the riser plate had backed out. Bill informed me that; a) There is a set screw in the riser that locks those pins in place and b) e would replace the damaged pieces under a warranty repair, at no cost.

THIS is how you do business!

Thanks Bill.