my shifter is real sloppy so i took it out to look at it. is there supposed to be a bushing on the bottom ball? cause its real sloppy in the hole it goes in. 94 m-edition

 

Yes, there is a plastic bushing that goes around the ball.

 

You are going to need all these parts for a proper repair:
eBay Motors: Mazda Miata shifter boot body seal and bushings (item 260394798033 end time Apr-21-09 10:52:44 PDT)

But the one that is main cause for the shifter slop is part number:0398-17-462A

 

Can be picked up at your local Mazda dealer for $5.52. They should have a whole bag of them on hand if you want to do the quick fix. Did this yesterday, made me happy. The rubber boots are like $40, and they have to order them. If yours are crappy (should be) might be worth it to get the whole eBay kit.

 

holy crap wow. awesome replies. thanks! ill head over to the mazda dealer tomarrow for the bushing. and yeah, both the upper and lower boots are cracked/dry/ missing. for weight reduction... lol is there any possibility of damage occuring from not having that bushing? oh and i should probably change the oil in the transmission, eh? was gonna do tranny, oil, and diff fluid tomarrow anyway. gonna try some royal purple.

 

**** eBay. I just tallied up the parts at Rosenthal Mazda and the $80 ebay kit is around $73. Add that to a few other items you need or want and shipping's free.

 

imma check prices while im at the dealership tomorrow.

 

+1 after looking...plus who needs new sound deadener? At the dealership they let you just buy what you need.

Word of advice...don't get too hefty with the three little bolts that hold down the plate above shifter ball.

 

yeah i figured not to put the heave ho on those bolts

 

You do know that the turret oil is separate from the rest of the transmission oil, right? Just making sure.

 

I just put some wheel bearing grease in there, I hope that does the trick.

The oil that was in there previously was all watered down due to bad boot, I figured the grease would hold up a little better.

 

Free shipping? I buy all my oem stuff from them, and always pay shipping. Am I missing the secret handshake?

 

 

to be honest, i had no idea. but that would make sense cause i thought it looked like graphite lube.
but all that will be next week due to the parts counter at the dealer being closed on the weekend.. cant you fill the transmission from that hole, also? not that i was gonna do that tho..

 

No, you can't fill the transmission from the turret.

 

No secret handshake; simply wait until you need $150 worth of parts and then shipping's free. In my case, and with three new '95's to take care of, that's about once a month or so.

 

There's also a aluminium cup that mazda comp sells/used to sell that replaces that bushing for even tighter shifting.

 

But that sometimes causes issues shifting into reverse, if that's important.

 

Swab out as much of the old gunk as possible with shop towels and add about 5 oz of gear oil to the turret. The tranny is filled by a plug in the side of the tranny. It takes about 2 quarts.

TIP:

Be sure you can loosen the fill plug before you drop the old gear oil. Some have dropped the lube, only to find that they couldn't get the plug out and were SOL until they could get the tools to do the job.

I had one that I had to use a bigger pipe wrench on. It was unbelieveably tight.

 

This is what I found when I went to change mine:





Old on left, new on right. Notice the top half of the old one is missing, which is where that end of the shifter applies the force, so the old one might as well have been non-existant.


I'd say it's the best $5 I've spent on the Miata. Really puts the clicketly-click back in the shifter like the designers intended 17 yrs ago.