DIY: Fixing your falling shifter

[Twistiva]

Well I had to fix another shifter that fell thru the floor on a festy this afternoon.......

OK, at the risk of irking damkid for commenting on an old thread, what would cause a shifter to fall thru the floor of a Festy? And what wears out to make a shifter assembly develop so much play (I'm assuming it's the rubber bushings, right?) My Festiva shifter has 3 1/2 - 4 inches of play laterally in 4th gear. It's always been sloppy as far as I can remember but lately it does seem it's getting worse and I've noticed a metallic buzz/vibration in the shifter when in gear. So, is my shifter about to give me big-time problems? BTW, what's so nice about the Civic short shifter mod?

Sorry for the ignorant questions, guys. I've had my Festy for a long time but have never had to repair this assembly.

Thx.

[skeeters_keeper]

Falling thru the floor is caused by the rubber 'ears' that hold the shifter assembly up wearing out.

The looseness is the bushings up near the trany wearing out - both on the stabilizer bar and on the shift linkage bar. I've read that if you buy a door-hinge repair kit from a mcautoparts store they should have a brass bushing in them that will fit those, but I haven't done it myself.

[1990new]

OK, at the risk of irking damkid for commenting on an old thread, what would cause a shifter to fall thru the floor of a Festy? And what wears out to make a shifter assembly develop so much play (I'm assuming it's the rubber bushings, right?) My Festiva shifter has 3 1/2 - 4 inches of play laterally in 4th gear. It's always been sloppy as far as I can remember but lately it does seem it's getting worse and I've noticed a metallic buzz/vibration in the shifter when in gear. So, is my shifter about to give me big-time problems? BTW, what's so nice about the Civic short shifter mod?

Sorry for the ignorant questions, guys. I've had my Festy for a long time but have never had to repair this assembly.

Thx.

I have added some pictures of my shifter rebuild in my user profile which show the shifter taken apart.
I had lots of play but my shifter was not falling thru. The rubber flanges in the housing were still good. And I probably did not need to take my shifter apart but did just to see how it worked, cleaned up, regreased and put back together.
New bushing in the linkage and the big bushing in the front for the stabilizer bar really did fix the problem. I also cut the bradded vertical bold in the universal linkage, put bushing in there and replaced with a bold and nut that I bought at Mazda. After I did all this, it shifts like new.
If you look at the diagram, the dust boot is shown on top, but goes on the bottom. Mazda had to order the parts but they came in two days for me.
My Mazda invoice showing the parts and price is posted earlier too.

[The wrench]

Mine wore out just bout 2 years ago, drilled a hole through, and put a bolt like suggested, works awesome, thought I was the only one, got to check out the whole civic shifter idea now...

[Dare]

Ordered the short shifter today.

[w4rkry]

Pictures Fixed