mx5cartalk.com

Hey everyone,
To date I haven't had any issues regarding transmission. I fit a short shifter a couple of days ago and using the standard mx5 gear knob it worked fine. Changed to a 20cm bubble shifter and now when I downshift, I get a whining noise audible in the cabin. At a guess it may be the sound of the gears/sybchro/something in the gearbox being amplified due to the larger shift knob? If that's the dumbest thing you've heard let me know.. But yeah, thoughts?
Cheers

All the gear boots in good order??

Yeah, gear boots intact, no signs of wear. Turret oil is topped up too, shift collar is the correct size. Anything else I should be looking at? I've also added some foam around the upper boot to reduce some noise.

Same thing happened to me once on another car (actually a hot little Ford Anglia, so it's stretching the definition of "car" a bit). Swapped to a wooden gear knob and it transmitted so much gear noise I gave it away after a few days.

Cool.. so you're suggesting just not use the gear knob if it generates too much noise?

Should probably mention that this didn't happen when I used the bubble shift knob with the OEM shifter... Did I just answer my own question?

I read your other post about fitting the SSK, & something about a wider notch than normal? could it be a vibration from that being sent up the shift stick & the different knob weight amplifying the sound?

The noise is still there when I grip the shift knob and there's no visible/audible rattling/vibrations of the shifter unit as a whole.

An example scenario when I'd notice the whining noise would be travelling at 40km/h, downshifting from 3rd to 2nd to turn a corner.