it's your syncro(s) then.

 

Did mine today. Ended up greasing it twice (once with a third of the can, the second using up to a half; the more the better).

Getting the plastic ring off stumped me for a few minutes, trying to slide a mini-screwdriver straight down and not getting past the metal surround and trying to pull up with some pliers, but then I took a medium-sized longer screwdriver, slid it down by the arrow, angled it back 45 degrees and undramatically pried it free without breaking it.

Kudos to the tip of putting it in reverse while screwing the top left bolt back in. Worked like a charm.

Better, but not the dramatic change I was hoping for. Guess the grease wasn't old enough yet. But it was fun finding post-it notes lost by the previous owner.

 

did mine a couple of weeks ago and man what a difference. the car shifts buttery smooth now and there is no resistance going into any gear. if anybody has not done this, do it now if your shifter is notchy.

btw none of my clips broke on my boot ring. i just took my time and got the ring off with a small pick.

 

Nice DIY, I am definately going to give this a go sometime this week as some of my gears are quite notcy, just one question, I read the TSB and it mentions about tightening the bolts back down with a certain amount of torque. Did everyone do this as they stated or did you all just tighten them up? lol

Thanks

 

forgive my ignorance, I just got a S and still learning about them, but in the miata world we pour transmission fluid in the shifter tunnel. Would that be bad for the S?

 

Does anyone have a guide to lift off the center console on an AP1?

Not sure what I should be pulling on/trying to pop off and don't want to snap anything?

 

nice write up, thanks

 

For a more noticeable improvement in shifting feel, after regreasing leave out the inner rubber boot. This is the one held down by the notorious white plastic ring.

I pulled the inner boot on my car and noticed a much bigger improvement than the regrease alone (which I had done a while earlier). There’s zero resistance when moving from gear to gear making fingertip shifts even easier.

One caveat: I know from reading the short shifter threads that this boot keeps the shifter from resonating and rattling, but I have no rattles/noises after removing mine. I’m using the OEM shift lever. YMMV.

 

That rubber boot prevents all kinds of crap going into the tunnel. It helps keeps the grease clean. I wanted to get rid of mine because it's a pain the ass to clip back in but I kept it because I knew it was going to keep a lot of crap out. I'd rather deal with the rubber boot than have to replace the grease on regular basis. Personal preference.

 

I guess I should have said the TOP rubber boot, with the white ring that can be such a pain. This one doesn’t seal in the grease, and really does more to keep transmission noise out of the car and prevent the shifter from rattling, if yours is prone to that (mine isn’t). It also adds a surprising amount of resistance to movement of the shift lever.