Shifter bushing replacement kit

[snoopios]

Hi guys,

My FD's gear shifter is a bit floppy and when I put my foot on the accelerator, I can feel the gear stick kind of move into position.

Does anyone know if replacing the bushings would help with this and if so, where to get a kit? I've seen an upgraded shift collar from DM (https://www.dm-motorsport.co.uk/rx7-fd3s-upgrade-shift-collar-295-p.asp) but I think I'd want to get a full kit in case the other seals have perished.

The car has about 110,000km to 120,000km on the clock and I've read that they do eventually start to become slack around this mileage.

Cheers

 

[Ceylon]

Probably more the diff and engine mounts I'd think. If old and worn the gear linkage will be more precise after replacing the collar on the selector like in your link though.

 

[Leon]

Sounds more diff and engine mount like Ceylon said if its moving about like that.

Replacing the bushings, oil and grease helped a load for me with the shifter feeling sloppy. When I took the shifter out of the car I found the following:

• Outer boots were perished and cracked - wasn't fused about these as it was to protect the cabin from the outside. (Especially for the price!)
• Rubber boot on shiftier had perished that kept the whole thing clean.
• top and bottom spring for bushings had gone missing.
• top bush had a gouge in it from dirt ingress.

After a bit of research I found that a few parts are interchangeable with the MX5's and saved quite a few £ like for some reason the top rubber boot for the MX5 and Rx7 are fundamentally the same but vastly different in price.

Annoyingly I threw out all the Mazda little part bags the other week. I'll try dig out all the parts you need for a full shiftier rebuild tonight, feel this may warrant a How-To too.. need to go back in there once when brass shift collar turns up from DM lol.

 

[snoopios]

My rear diff mounts have recently been changed so I guess it'll be engine mount then?

Ahh sweet, thanks @Leon. I'll see if I can document what I do. There are a few videos online of this (

- for example).

So I could potentially just replace the collar and it would help to reduce floppyness? I think I'd be better off replacing everything down there if I'm pulling things apart.

 

[snoopios]

I've done some more digging and found a great write up on rx7club.com (https://www.rx7club.com/3rd-generation-specific-1993-2002-16/93-fd-oem-shifter-rebuild-1072268/) and here's the list of parts needed for a full rebuild:

 

[Leon]

That looks right, Theres a few parts you can swap out if you look like youre struggling to get them.

I did this earlier last year and I struggled to find a lot of the parts listed in that post on Rx7Club. I used the following parts when I rebuilt mine:

M505-99-178 - Shift boot
030317474 - Shift boot gasket
M50517482 - Wave washer x2
M50117481 - Lower Bush
M50117481 - Upper Bush (Same part as above)
M50117515 - Slot bush
039817462A- Base cup bush

With a lot of these being generic parts between the Rx7 and MX5 I got them all from an MX5 site called AutolinkUK

 

[snoopios]

It's interesting because this is what I've just pulled from the '95 RX7 parts manual from wright-here.net (http://wright-here.net/files/manuals/parts_manuals/95/ - page 74)

(17-462) "0398-17-462A" x 1 - Base Cup Bush
(17-475) "M513-17-480A" x 1 - Inner Boot
(17-152) "M501-17-515" x 2 - Slot Bush
(17-474) "0303-17-474" x 1 - Inner Boot Gasket
(17-482) "M505-17-482" x 1 - Wave washer
(17-481A) "R503-17-481" x 1 - Lower Bush
(17-470) "R504-17-470A" x 1 - Outer Boot

The interesting part being that it says you need two of the slot bushes and only 1 of the lower bush. However, looking at the video from Mickey at Throtl (the video I posted above), when he was doing it, there were two slot bushes in the pack but he only used one of them and also needed two main bushes...

...so, I think the list should look more like this (differences in blue):

"0398-17-462A" x 1 - Base Cup Bush (https://www.autolinkmx5.com/gear-le...-5-speed--early-6-speed-039817462a-1261-p.asp) - You can get a brass one from (https://www.dm-motorsport.co.uk/rx7-fd3s-upgrade-shift-collar-295-p.asp)
"M513-17-480A" x 1 - Inner Boot - (https://www.autolinkmx5.com/gearshi...eal-mazda-mx-5-1993-2005-m51317480a-100-p.asp)
"M501-17-515" x 1 - Slot Bush - (https://www.autolinkmx5.com/gear-le...-5-mk1-1992-98-gearshift-m50117515-8427-p.asp)
"0303-17-474" x 1 - Inner Boot Gasket
"M505-17-482" x 2 - Wave washer - (https://www.autolinkmx5.com/gear-le...mx-5-1989-2005-gearshift-m50517482-5812-p.asp)
"M501-17-481 " x 2 - Lower Bush (one for top, one for bottom) - https://www.autolinkmx5.com/gear-lever-upper-change-bush-m50117481-mazda-mx-5-mk1-1989-98-8961-p.asp)
"R504-17-470A" or "FD01-64-490A" x 1 - Outer Boot

There is also this that includes "0303-17-474" but it's a full kit with parts that you potentially don't need - (https://www.autolinkmx5.com/gear-le...t-mazda-mx-5-mk1-1993-98-m50599178-7862-p.asp)

How come you need two wave washers?

 

[Leon]

This is the kinda problems I hit upon. If you want a laugh look at the pats manuals for different years. You'll some parts different and some no longer listed but still shown.

The wave washers are springs, they keep the bush's pressed against the knuckle on the shift stick. WIthout them you'll end up up/down slack.

R504-17-470A might not need doing as it could be "okay"

 

[snoopios]

This is the kinda problems I hit upon. If you want a laugh look at the pats manuals for different years. You'll some parts different and some no longer listed but still shown.

The wave washers are springs, they keep the bush's pressed against the knuckle on the shift stick. WIthout them you'll end up up/down slack.

That's pretty annoying but oh well.

I realised after you mentioned that, that it was almost a stupid question. I was thinking 1 was enough but given that they're separated, of course you'd need one for each one.

I'm going to fire an email over to Mazda to see if they come up with any alternative part numbers that are current.

 

[Leon]

Aye makes sense,

That part list I listed was what I fitted last year. Took a lot of digging to realise that the turrets fundamentally the same and many parts sawp over. You'll see that with the Inner boot that the Rx7 one is stupidly expensive for the same part.

Good luck with Mazda, would love to know if you get anything useful back.

Just had a quick watch of that video, he reused parts If you do the change, suck the oil out of the turret and replace it. its NOT linked to the gearbox

 

[snoopios]

Well, since I pulled all of these part numbers from a RX7 parts manual, I'd assume that because the part numbers I found on the autolinkmx5 matched exactly with the ones from the RX7 parts manual, they are actually exactly the same part. I guess with it being the RX7, they slapped a premium price on the parts for those who weren't willing to dig a little deeper.

Thanks, I usually have terrible luck with Mazda as they either completely ignore my email or when they do reply, they don't the next time.

Thanks for the heads up with the oil, I'll make sure I suck it all out and replace it.

 

[snoopios]

I just received an email from Mazda:

Good Morning Mr Drewnicki,

Following your recent email regarding parts for your 95 Mazda RX7 I can confirm the following:

039817462A - £4.04+Vat AVAILABLE

M51317480A - £23.69+Vat AVAILABLE

M50117515 - £7.47+Vat AVAILABLE

030317474 - £1.97+Vat AVAILABLE

M50517482 - £2.80+Vat AVAILABLE

M50117481 - £3.04+Vat AVAILABLE

R50417470A – £45.53+Vat NOT AVAILABLE

FD0164490A - £57.43+Vat AVAILABLE FROM EUROPE (3DAYS)

Note- All Prices are retail prices. Anything shown as available should arrive next day if ordered before 3pm.

Unfortunately we do not have the facilities to look up parts for this vehicle but If you can provide any part numbers we can provide them for you.

Any parts ordered are on a special order basis and will require payment before ordering. All parts are non returnable.

Hope this helps

Many Thanks

Tom Griffin
Parts Manager
Furrows Of Shrewsbury

 

[Leon]

Looks good to me!