DIY: Fixing your falling shifter

[w4rkry]

Pictures Fixed

[Dare]

Ordered the short shifter today.

[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...

[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.

[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.

[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.

[walth]

Man, this worked great!

Such an easy fix for an annoying problem.

You the man Skeeters Keeper.

+1

[sandspringsfestiva]

Man, this worked great!

Such an easy fix for an annoying problem.

You the man Skeeters Keeper.

[blackhandbeagles]

I did this and it worked great. Thanks.

[tatrobb]

My friend did this dropping shifter fix to my festiva, but he tightened the bolt all the way down instead of double nutting it, would this be why my tranny will not go all the way into 2nd gear?

[kumalaba]

^

Don't you think your post is just a tad off-topic for a 7 month old thread??

old to you but not to new members. if its old delete the whole thing!

[Damkid]

Hi All,New to this forum.I have the factory shifter with worn busings on both ends of the linkage(218,000mi).Ford wants $35 for 4 rubber replacements.The set-up looks similar to my MX-3.I know they make a bronze bushing replacement for it,that is a 1000% improvement.Any ideas on my "NEW" Festy?? Thanks

Don't you think your post is just a tad off-topic for a 7 month old thread??

[microflea]

Sloppy shifter

Hi All,New to this forum.I have the factory shifter with worn busings on both ends of the linkage(218,000mi).Ford wants $35 for 4 rubber replacements.The set-up looks similar to my MX-3.I know they make a bronze bushing replacement for it,that is a 1000% improvement.Any ideas on my "NEW" Festy?? Thanks

[ejp2fast]

+1 on the Civic short shifter. If you haven't done it, do it. You'll love it.

did the 98-01 acura integra one...

[Charlie1717]

I could do another quick writeup this afternoon I guess, I kinda figured this was a mod everyone knew about!

That would be sweet. I'm sure its simple but I know some like to see the process before trying it themselves!