Transmission Shifter

[mazdaspeed23]

i was changing my shifter bushings today, and i noticed that the bar beside the shifter bar under the car theres a bushing and a nut off it. im assuming its for torque on the transmission but im not sure what the name of the bar is so i can try and get some bushings for it. does anyone know the name of it?. heres a picture of the bar http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z39 ... titled.jpg

[mikeinaus]

mazda should have them.

[mazdaspeed23]

i bet they do lol. i find the dealer is always over priced

[SuperK]

you'll probably be looking about 30 dollars for a replacement from mazda

[wynnspeed1]

what bushings are you looking for? The black rubber one at the transmission or the white ones at the the shifter? not shure if the rubber can be replace. I believe they call that one the connector link. I got mine as a set. shifter link and connector for i think around 200$

[mazdaspeed23]

ya the black rubber ones. i was changing my shifter bushings and i noticed that the nut on that bar is gone along with the outter rubber bushing

[Daninski]

The parts person at Bay Mazda's name is Jamie, she's a real sweet heart and if you tell her your working on MX3s and be real nice and ask she may give you a 20% discount,,,like me. Oh and the female mechanic there has a real nice red MX-3. You really need to learn to mingle.

[mazdaspeed23]

ya i just called them its called a shifter linkage. and their actually not that bad for price this time. its a big $12.00

[davmac]

I’m loving this Mazda parts web site that gives you complete drawings and part number access:


Bushing and sleeve:
1 - B09246047 PIPE $3.64
1 - GJ2146041 BUSH $5.69
Nut and 2 washers to hold it in place:
1 – 999401000 NUT, FLANGE $2.93
2 – 999521030 WASHER $1.38
I assume you still have the stud, but if not:
1 - BG6246161 STUD $3.99

[MrMazda92]

I don't see the benefit of replacing that... It wouldn't tighten up your shifter really. That second bar helps to stabilize the shifter assembly itself(as it mounts to the car), so you don't overstress it while shifting.

[mazdaspeed23]

ya when i first seen it the first thing that came to my mind was some kind of torque bar since its hooked to the tranny.. When i called mazda to get the parts in, they said it is a torque bar thats why its in the tranny, and it helps to stabilize the shifter assembly.

[stepchyld]

Though I can't say why they'd call it a "torque bar", I can tell you what happens if you lose the stud, bushing, nut, and are left with that bar just hanging around not connected to the transmission at all: 2nd gear, basically gone.
I'd call it a "shifter stabilizer bar" because it basically maintains the geometry between the shifter/shift housing and the transmission/transmission's 'shifter'.

I found out the hard way: one day, driving my old commute to work, I couldn't shift into 2nd. Shifter would slide down, but 2nd wouldn't engage. Skip to 3rd (since 1st wasn't an option at that speed), and everything worked as normal, 3rd, 4th and 5th; till the next light, where it happened again. I found 2nd would work, with a soft hand and a down-then-right nudge, but only about half the time while driving.
I thought either the rear motor mount was shot; or worse: 2nd gear was failing, meaning time for another transmission, since the other gears were fine, and, IF/WHEN I could get it to shift INTO 2nd, 2nd worked well.
(-had a beater with 5th gear blown, it was GONE, shifting into it just made weird grinding/clinking noises as the car just coasted, regardless of rpm-)

Drove it a while, skipping 2nd, till I had time with my tools to check it out.
Underneath, I found this bar was no longer attached to the transmission. Shifter and mount were fine, shift rod-to-transmission connection was tight, but the mounting stud for this bar was gone. There was, simply, no place for this bar to attach to the transmission, no hardware, just some rubber bushing-like material inside the cylindrical end of the bar, which came out of the bar easily.

I knew, 5+ years and 70k+ miles before, when I swapped in that transmission, the stud was in the transmission and the bar was installed correctly, no free-play; so, somehow, the stud had come out of the transmission, and fallen out of the bar and bushing. The bushing, nut, and washer went too, probably before the stud finally fell...leaving behind only some rubber...

I sourced a bolt and made a metal bushing from an egr tube that was close enough to be worth a shot, but not a snug enough fit to be perfect, added a few washers and tried it.
It worked! 2nd gear was back, and other gears were just as before.

mazdaspeed23, you were lucky the stud hadn't fallen out, else you'd be in my shoes back then.
- While underneath, I saw the mounts, which I hadn't really looked at in a long time, weren't in great shape. They weren't 'shot' but hadn't collapsed, yet; but all showed some cracks in the rubber. Will have to replace them soon... I suspect, given geometry of the setup, if a certain mount were blown, it's plausible a different gear could 'disappear', and it might not always affect 2nd gear only, like it was in my case.

Now, thanks to seeing the cost (Thank You, mazdaspeed23), stud included (Thank You, davmac), is under $20.00, and my 'rigging' has already gone over 1,000 miles, it would be of benefit to mount this rod to the transmission as it was designed to mount (Sorry, MrMazda92). vs the rig I did, which isn't quite a solid mount, but close.
OEM mount would stabilize the shifter's mount and transmission, the "shifter stabilizer bar" ties the shift assembly to the drive assembly (eng/tranny), while that (OEM) bushing reduces vibrations from the drive assembly like the engine/transmission mounts.

[Daninski]

This post is typical, squander dollars but save nickels, Parts like these are parts you should always replace when ever you swap out an engine or trany. All in all the bolts, and bushings I found to be very reasonably priced and,,,you get to go talk with Jamie.

[wytbishop]

I ran with a badly worn out stabilizer bar bushing for a couple of months and it was brutal. it's really nice having all nice tight bushings in the shifter system.

worth the moneys fo sho.

[SuperK]

I changed mine out and I was like wtf that's crazy