So I don't know how fast this condition happened or anything as this is Jenn's MSM and I don't drive it very much. But the other week we dropped it off at R*Speed for t-belt/wp/suspension/alignment/exhaust leak work. I drove the car the day after picking it up to run an errand while my car was on stands. When I got in her car and went to put it in reverse, I thought "WTF? This was NOT like this before" and started to think something went wrong while it was in the care of R*Speed. So Friday I take the console out, remove the shifter thinking I'd find broken bushings...but to my surprise they were fine. But this is what I did find...






Now how the **** does that happen? Never would have thought about this being a problem. Clearly R*Speed did NOT do anything wrong here, just bad timing for it to happen after getting the car worked on. I ended up just removing the PPF bolts and sliding it out of the way and allowing the rear of the trans to drop down just enough to remove the two forward bolts on the turret cover. Tightened everything back up and all is fine. But has ANYONE had this happen to them?

Lesson- If your shifter ever becomes VERY wobbly/loose/lots of play and it isn't the cup bushing...it might be this.

 

That's really weird. Does she shift like she's pro drag racing? lol

 

what am i looking at?

 

Lol 18.

Brain the unscrewed bolt

Dann.

 

oh...

 

Surprisingly, she doesn't shift like she's racing lol....she can drive the car good too, but knows what she is doing

In all the years I've spent with these cars, and all of the weird **** I've seen/broken, this is a first for me.

 

Pretty sure I've seen this once before on mr_hyde's car, and I'm pretty sure it was also an MSM box.

 

I think I may need to check mine just to make sure. I am not really having any problems with mine but I do know the first time I opened up my shifter the 4 bolts that hold the actual shifter in were all super loose. FrankB had this happen too so I probably should check this as well.

 

Wheres Pinky??? should see if he has had a problem with it, or at least inform him so he can take a look to make sure. i found a MSM 6spd for $800 that i wanna get... if i can, ill be checking this out for sure

 

I'll have to check this on mine when it finally decided to make it's way across the country to my garage. Thanks for the info.

 

No problem. I'm glad I found it before the bolt backed all the way out and leaving someone stranded and unable to get into gear (or out of one!). Unfortunately, when I tightened up the bolt, I did not take into account the position of the turret location on the shaft and now the shifter's location is forward about 3/4"...something that really couldn't be seen or felt before putting it all back together as there is no reference point for the correct center location of the shifter in neutral when the assembly is apart. Oh well, a project for another day, luckily it will only take about 30 minutes to fix.

 

So is there no hole for that bolt to go into? Is it just a set screw on the shaft?

 

Here I is!

I haven't noticed any slop in the shifter, but then again, I have yet to actually use the shifter for anything beyond sitting in the car making Brrrm Brrrm noises. I'll take a look down in there when I get around to filling the trans with gear lube.

(The FrankenMiata only gets worked on when I'm caught up on / between paying gigs, which sadly has been very little time of late.)