Thanks for a great write up !!

I did this last night and it took about 30-40 minutes. I didn't have any problems, everything came apart and went back together w/o a hitch.

I didn't have the magic Honda voo-doo grease, so I just pumped some Moly grease out of my grease gun and went to town.

My shifter wasn't real bad before the job, but it is definitely better now. I was having difficulty getting it into reverse before the grease job, but that seems to be solved also.

What surprised me when I took it apart wasn't that the old grease was dried up, but how little grease there was. It doesn't appear that Honda wasted any money on greasing my shifter assembly !!!

 

Attempting to do this myself and have two questions:

1. How do you get the plastic ball cap back on without breaking (I've broken two on my daily driver, and one I heated in warm water so it'd be more flexible).
2. What is the exact orientation of the shifter? The pictures and manual are not clear, (at the end of the ball cap shifter there is a square 'knob' does this point forward when installing it?

many thanks...

 

I just popped my replacement pivot on - nothing special and it seated without issue. Some have mentioned heating it, but I'm not sure how hot you'd have to get it since it is designed to sit on the transmission...

The shifter itself has a square notch extrusion, so you will only be able to insert it in one way. Just make sure it hooks up properly when seated.

 

Thanks.

 

Just be careful not to install the shifter assembly backwards...orientation matters. I dealt with this a few months ago. I had everything resintalled but couldn't get it to shift into 5th or 6th. Turns out I had the 'metal tab' facing the passenger side. After fighting that plastic collar back off without breaking it, I spun it around and popped it back on, dropped the shifter assembly back into the linkage and everything is great! Per miloking's comment in the below thread - LHD cars: the metal tab should be on the driver's side. That means that the little extrusion on the plastic collar should face forward.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-un...issue-1172051/

 

If you guys say so, I'll go ahead and find the right urea grease to buy.

But I have a lot of this stuff laying around... will this work?

 

Did mine last week shifts smooooooth now, feels like brand new! I replaced 3 things in there,

Item# 54110-S2A-003 Change Lever Ball Seat - $6.23
Item# 54111-S2A-003 Pivot Cover - $15.26
Item# 54117-S2A-003 Lever Push Spring - $3.41

Make sure if you do change these plastics, please soak it first in hot water to prevent from cracking.
*Putting in reverse definitely makes screwing back those 3 bolts easier.

Thanks OP!

 

Plastic gets a lot more brittle when its old. Taking off an old ball joint tip might crack it, even if it was still intact.

Putting a new one on should be ok, especially if its nicely warmed first. But if its an old part, its conceivable it couod be older than the one that was on your car. Maybe that is what happened to you. Who knows.

There is an aftermarket part made out of a harder material (metal, some harder plastic, can't recall). Supposedly gives firmer shift feel.

 

+1 on the heating up trick. I actually introduced a hairline crack on mine (it was cold), so need to redo that job

 

Even after heating up in water I still managed to put a hairline crack in mine. Since I have to redo it, and after researching and recommendations I decided on the Car Garage Amis one:

https://www.nengun.com/car-garage-am...0-shift-collar

It's taking a few weeks as it's coming from Japan. It's a little pricey, but hopefully I won't crack this one...but just in case I ordered two.