Shifter dropped during clutch replacement... now what?

[jasonbierschwale]

Helloooo.....<P>First I gotta say... Mazda had their heads screwed on right when they decided to build the MX-3. WHat a fun lil car! However, if I had a design engineer when I was replacing my clutch this past weekend, I would have screwed his head off his shoulders... *grin* I worked for almost two hours trying to get the engine side bolt out (the one right next to the Pass. axle)! Also, I did this job with three scissor jacks (not recommended) and good old elbow grease. I didn't have the benefit of a shop manual (and didn't realize that there was one online on this site... what a resource! This site is awesome!!!) so I didn't know what everything was. Unfortunately, I didn't unhook the extension bar (the one that mounts to the shifter and tranny) before I dropeed and twisted the tranny. When I jumped in eagerly to test my brand spankin new clutch after a weekend of agony under a car in a driveway in sub-freezing temperature's, I missed the shifter. Took me a second to figure it out, but the shifter had dropped 4 inches! After removing the console, I noticed that the shifter ball is held into the mounting cup with what appears to be two pieces of double stick foam tape (?!?!) Anyway, do I have to replace the whole damn assembly, or is there an easy fix for this? I thought about just putting two opposing sheet metal screws through the cup into the ball mount, but it looks like the ball is too close inside the cup. Any ideas would be MOST appreciated! [img]shrug.gif"%20border="0[/img]

[ProtegeSTS]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Trinity23T:<BR><STRONG>Helloooo.....<P>First I gotta say... Mazda had their heads screwed on right when they decided to build the MX-3. WHat a fun lil car! However, if I had a design engineer when I was replacing my clutch this past weekend, I would have screwed his head off his shoulders... *grin* I worked for almost two hours trying to get the engine side bolt out (the one right next to the Pass. axle)! Also, I did this job with three scissor jacks (not recommended) and good old elbow grease. I didn't have the benefit of a shop manual (and didn't realize that there was one online on this site... what a resource! This site is awesome!!!) so I didn't know what everything was. Unfortunately, I didn't unhook the extension bar (the one that mounts to the shifter and tranny) before I dropeed and twisted the tranny. When I jumped in eagerly to test my brand spankin new clutch after a weekend of agony under a car in a driveway in sub-freezing temperature's, I missed the shifter. Took me a second to figure it out, but the shifter had dropped 4 inches! After removing the console, I noticed that the shifter ball is held into the mounting cup with what appears to be two pieces of double stick foam tape (?!?!) Anyway, do I have to replace the whole damn assembly, or is there an easy fix for this? I thought about just putting two opposing sheet metal screws through the cup into the ball mount, but it looks like the ball is too close inside the cup. Any ideas would be MOST appreciated! [img]shrug.gif"%20border="0[/img]</STRONG><HR></BLOCKQUOTE><P><BR>Fairly common problem...<P>a) if you want to mess with it as is, get under the car (using JACKSTANDS for safety) and put a flat piece of metal on each side of the cup thing, tapping it up to secure it....thats the ghetto way, but it will work<P>b) mazda doesnt sell just the cup thing, you need the entire assembly, which aint cheap. This is what i did, cuz i had a race the next day, and NEEDED it fixed then, and i didnt have time to screw around.<P>Good luck