New short shifter to market. Review and Install

[Grumpy]

According to rules and regulations, I cannot post price nor website for this product. If you want that information, there's a newfangled thing called GOOGLE to help you.

About a year ago I got in touch with the owner of Axialflow Engineering. They make, among other things, short shifters for the RX-8 and S2000. He was interested in making one for the MX-5 and a few months ago we got started in earnest. We did the install Friday, of the first production model. The shifter itself is the same as the one for the RX-8, but the additional parts are different.
Before the Miata, I never worked on cars, but I can say this is a pretty easy, straightforward install, maybe a 3 out of 10.

The shifter:



The Accessories:
(2 small dowels, 1 plastic dowel and ali plate not shown)


Install instructions:
1:Remove center console (NC1):
A: using trim removal pieces, pop out the coin slinger
tray, bottom of the front cup holder, and rear cover behind
cupholders.

b: remove the 5 screws that were revealed by the removed
trim pieces, 2 under the coin slinger, 2 in the rear, and one
under the cup holder.

c: remove shift knob.

D: pull up on emergency lever boot. it should unclip.

E: raise the center console a bit, starting with the front
where it "snaps" to the other trim piece. This will allow
you to use a small flat head screw driver to unclip the
power window connections. I found it's easier to do from the
passenger side.

F: Remove the console.

2: Shifter Removal

A: 10mm Deep socket to remove the 4 nuts holding the upper shift boot.

B: Remove lower shift boot

C: 10mm socket, remove 3 bolts holding plastic retaining ring.

D: Remove Shifter!


Now the fun part.

Using a 13mm wobble socket remove the 4 bolts holding the top part
of the transmission on. The rear driver's side will be a pain to get to.

Put the plastic dowel provided in the kit (not pictured) into the
space vacated by the shifter.

Attach the provided aluminum removal piece to the spot vacated by
the plastic retaining ring.



Wiggle, pull, whatever, to remove the upper part of the transmission.

Turning the upper part of the transmission over, you will notice 2
metal pins along the side. These must be removed and replaced with the
longer ones provided in the kit. The picture shows the longer ones already installed:



clean off the revealed surfaces of the upper and lower transmission,
and apply a thin bead of sealant (we used high temp RTV) to the
edges of the lower transmission opening.

Put the aluminum spacer provided in the kit in place.

Apply another bead of sealant to the upper transmission, and put on
top of the aluminum spacer.

Using the New longer bolts provided in the Kit, secure the upper
transmission, aluminum spacer, and lower transmission together.

Put the new shifter in, and reattach the plastic retaining ring with
your original bolts.

Put on lower shift boot

Put on upper shift boot. I found it easier to remove the plastic
bushing around the new shifter, jamming it into the plastic ring
around the hole of the upper shift boot, and then putting the whole
thing back into place, as shown:



Doing it that way will minimalize any sliding of the bushing on the shifter.

After the upper shift boot is reattached , put your console back
into place following the instructions above in reverse order.

I've found the shifter to be precise and a bit shorter than stock.

There doesn't appear to be any rattling or buzzing after the install.
I've driven it about 250 miles so far, highway, city and 35 miles or so of
canyons. I've had no issues missing gears or such.The RX8 shfiter states
about a 29% reduction, so I figure this is probably close to that.

I have spoken to owners of a couple other 6 speeds, and they like the feel of it, just from shifting when still, not under load. I plan on having others do a bit of a drive, to get their input for this thread as well.