Hi All,
Thought I'd throw in a howto replace your gearstick bushes.
Why?
If there is movement in your gearstick when in gear (i.e you can wobble the gear level from side to side when it is in a gear position) then you probably need to replace the gear stick bushes.
In mine there was a
huge amount of movement - as I found out, this is due to the fact that my gear lever had
no bushes whatsoever! I had approx 2cm movement when in gear.
how to get started?
Call up mazda and organise to purchase some gearstick bushes. Quote the model number of your car, and they'll order some of these:
Note the price difference. Total cost to me of ~$20
When you get the parts, they look like this:
and this:
However when you put the two different part numbers together, you can see there is no difference between them:
The reason for the two parts, is that there are 2 linkage points. one right under your gearstick under the cabin (generally just behind the cat:
And one at the gearbox end:
So if you want to save yourself some money, buy the cheaper parts seeing as they're exactly the same!
What you'll need
This:
And this:
And these:
Socket set
Two adjustable wrenches (small)
Flathead screwdriver
Some safety glasses if you have them (not essential for the job, but handy for your eyes)
How to do it!
1/. Apply handbrake and chock wheels, and raise the front of the car - preferrably with ramps, better with a grease pit, but stands will do.
2/. Put the gearstick in 4th gear (this moves the linkage around and makes it a little easier to get to).
Have a swig of beer.
3/. Locate the heatshield above the exhaust, and undo the four bolts supporting it
4/. Once its off, it will rest on the exhaust (it doesn't weigh much) and you can slide it towards the rear of the car to expose the gearstick end linkage.
Here is where the safety glasses are really handy, as dirt and rocks etc get trapped above the heatshield, and if you're working under the car, they get trapped in your eyeballs..
5/. Now you can see the gearstick end of the linkage:
6/. Grab your two adjustable wrenches (unfortunately a socket set won't fit up in there) and undo the nut and washer on one side of the linkage. At this point dirt and stuff will fall out of the linkage into your eyes again. Yay.
7/. Have a swig of beer, cleanse eyes.
8/. Grab your screwdriver and use it to wriggle the bolt from the linkage - mine was wedged in reasonably tightly. If you still have remains of the old bushes I imagine that the screwdriver will assist in getting rid of these as well.
9/. Now you can free up the linkage:
10/. Make sure you grab the split washer as well, and you should have this:
11/. Now slide the bushes into the end of the gearstick linkage:
12/. Reverse the above procedure - slide the bolt thru the linkage, put the washer on and tighten the nut.
13/. At this stage, have another swig of beer, and test the gearstick to see how tight it is. For me this was perfect (the front bushes in my car are in good nick), so I left it at that. Its
amazing the difference it has made - its like having a new gearbox.
If you were to continue on and replace the front bushes, you would need to undo the six bolts on the suspension cross arm:
And repeat the process, however I had a quick go at these bolts, and successfully managed to knock myself in the head with my wrench, and not budge the bolts at all.
14/. Go inside and wash your hands:
15/. And dress your wounds:
16/. Finish your beer
and go for a hoon.
Hope this helps out there, and that caleb can keep the pix up for awhile.
Out of interest, seeing as I didn't use the other two bushes, I have a set of these floating around that someone could buy from me if they want to do the above and have a nice tight box.
Cheers,
Jasonius.
PS: Mods - is this worth putting in the projects section?