mx5cartalk.com

My gear shift boot has fallen away from knob (or more accurately it's always been like that), meaning the gear stick itself is exposed.

Three questions:
1. What colour (if any) was the stick originally painted? (All I can see is exposed metal and a tiny bit of surface rust)
2. Is the boot supposed to sit flush with the knob?
3. If so, how is it attached?

I'd assume it'd be the same as the NBs

my one is exposed because I dont' have the original knob on there

metal is exposed

when i had the original knob in it would screw down hard onto the shift boot

The stick itself is about 8mm at the threaded end with the knob, and around 20mm near the bottom. The hole in the top of the boot is around 12mm, so it just sort of sits around.

It doesn't look like the knob can screw all the way down, but I'll have another look.

I'm thinking there should be a spring or lock nut underneath the boot that holds the top of the boot hard against the knob.

And I might spray the stick black anyway :)

The leather/vinyl boot attaches to the underside of the console.

There's a plastic ring at the top of the boot that sits on top of the tapered section of the lever, which in turn keeps it flush with the bottom of the knob. I would pull the lever out, clean it and paint it gloss black so that it doesn't show when properly installed with the boot and console.

Thanks everyone!

Yep, a black spray's the go. Looks like the knob needs to be screwed down further too. May as well change the gear box fluid while I'm there.

the gearbox is not filled from the gear-stick housing.
The gearstick housing holds a small quantity of oil. Not sure how much, but doesn't look to be any more than 300mL.

I should have taken photos too, I changed them both for new items about a week ago.

1red5 wrote:the gearbox is not filled from the gear-stick housing.
The gearstick housing holds a small quantity of oil. Not sure how much, but doesn't look to be any more than 300mL.

I knew that...
(No really, I did!)

I saw a slide show that someone linked to from a forum here. Saw someone using a nice turkey baster to draw out the fluid from there.

But I'll be doing all that when I get new rubber upper and lower shift boots as well (the upper is rooted, so I assume the lower is too).

If they arrive before tomorrow afternoon bring them along to the MX-5 club of WA after work get together (details on www.mx5club.com.au) with a philips head screw driver, a flat screw driver and a 10mm socket/spanner and i'll help you swap them across.

I haven't done them on an NA but I don't think it's too different to the NB.

In that last photo, see how the rubber is much smaller than the width of the shaft, rather than try and pull it back off over the gear stick, just cut it off (you're replacing it anyway).

Okibi wrote:If they arrive before tomorrow afternoon bring them along to the MX-5 club of WA after work get together (details on www.mx5club.com.au) ...

*sniff* I would but I work on Tuesday nights!

Also I need to actually order them at some stage. Speaking of which, any MX5 parts places here in Perth?

http://www.mx5shop.com.au/ is Perth based.

MX-5 Club of W.A. members get 15% off Parts and Service at Mazda Dealers statewide.