Here's what an unemployed engineer does to his CX-5 sport!!!

[phunky.buddha]

Hi psistolic! Kudos here from another engineer (mechanical)- great work learning all those skills on your year off! Did you ever consider changing the bend location on your shifter with an extension that wasn't bolted into place? Then you could still extend the boot over and make it look stock...

 

[psistolic]

Hi psistolic! Kudos here from another engineer (mechanical)- great work learning all those skills on your year off! Did you ever consider changing the bend location on your shifter with an extension that wasn't bolted into place? Then you could still extend the boot over and make it look stock...

Hey fellow engineer!

Actually, at first I was going to cut and weld the shift lever to create that new angle, but I found 2 problems which led me to use the adapter instead.
At the base of the lever is a molded/glued plastic stopper (to limit the rotation of the lever), I couldn't disassemble this piece off without breaking it, and any welding heat would have surely melted or deformed it, so I scratched that idea.
The other problem with adding an angle or bend at the top before the threading, is that the lever is actually comprised of 2 parts where a cylindrical assembly needs to be slid over and down to the bottom of the lever.
Any bends would prevent you from putting this back into the car, I took a picture of my "backup" assembly (in case I need to put this back to stock on day)

There's also a spring with a plastic retaining piece that sits near the threading, which can't be used as a supporting surface if using a hydraulic press.
So any bends would have to occur near the very top and has to be done with this fully assembled, I guess it could be done now that I think about it, hahah!
But it did take me a few test trials to finally figure out what angle felt the most ergonomic during shifting, and the adapter plate makes it easy to adjust and rotate the angle.

 

[Surfsup]

Love the oil/coolant gauges. I miss those gauges on these newer cars that just show you and idiot light. Nice work all around.

 

[tibimakai]

$45 is not expensive. The same style original Mazda headrests which they use everywhere else in the world, but here are over $100 each without shipping. There is a thread about these headrests on this forum.
You can not extend those headrests?

 

[fdew]

Re the counter bore for the socket head cap screws. There is the right way. A end mil centered and plunge cut. Then for those of us that don't have the skill or tools you just put it in a vice, chose a drill bit just a bit bigger then the cap screw head, center the part, and drill. Sure the bottom of the hole is at an angle, but no one knows but you and it works fine.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Hey fellow engineer!

Actually, at first I was going to cut and weld the shift lever to create that new angle, but I found 2 problems which led me to use the adapter instead.
At the base of the lever is a molded/glued plastic stopper (to limit the rotation of the lever), I couldn't disassemble this piece off without breaking it, and any welding heat would have surely melted or deformed it, so I scratched that idea.
The other problem with adding an angle or bend at the top before the threading, is that the lever is actually comprised of 2 parts where a cylindrical assembly needs to be slid over and down to the bottom of the lever.
Any bends would prevent you from putting this back into the car, I took a picture of my "backup" assembly (in case I need to put this back to stock on day)

There's also a spring with a plastic retaining piece that sits near the threading, which can't be used as a supporting surface if using a hydraulic press.
So any bends would have to occur near the very top and has to be done with this fully assembled, I guess it could be done now that I think about it, hahah!
But it did take me a few test trials to finally figure out what angle felt the most ergonomic during shifting, and the adapter plate makes it easy to adjust and rotate the angle.

Hmmmm. Ok then! Just thought I'd ask... guess I'm too used to modding Honda shifters.

 

[psistolic]

Hmmmm. Ok then! Just thought I'd ask... guess I'm too used to modding Honda shifters.

haha, sorry if my reply seemed a bit cocky and pretentious, totally not intended!

this part of the build took me a while to figure out, just wanted to provide some of my rationale to the madness! =]

my first stick shift car was actually a honda, 91 crx si, probably one of my most-loved cars so far!

 

[psistolic]

$45 is not expensive. The same style original Mazda headrests which they use everywhere else in the world, but here are over $100 each without shipping. There is a thread about these headrests on this forum.
You can not extend those headrests?

Thanks for letting me know that they sell for $100! Makes me feel a lot better paying $45, woot!
These do extend up, but just wont be as high as the original, but usually my passengers are generally pretty short people anyway.

 

[psistolic]

Re the counter bore for the socket head cap screws. There is the right way. A end mil centered and plunge cut. Then for those of us that don't have the skill or tools you just put it in a vice, chose a drill bit just a bit bigger then the cap screw head, center the part, and drill. Sure the bottom of the hole is at an angle, but no one knows but you and it works fine.

Thanks for the suggestion!
I've been using the mill this past year, and sometimes I just end up forgetting about the good ol' hand drill!

 

[psistolic]

Love the oil/coolant gauges. I miss those gauges on these newer cars that just show you and idiot light. Nice work all around.

Yup, me too, and pretty soon, the industry will probably do away with the tachometer gauge altogether!
Electric cars are starting to take a significant chunk of the market already, drive the manuals while you still can!

 

[Surfsup]

The two gauges I used display the Coolant temperature and oil pressure (I never liked how new cars did away with the analog gauges for water temp and oil pressure).
These particular gauges (Autometer pro comp) have a logic output so that you can take setup warning lights when the temperature gets too high, or oil pressure too low.
I have them hooked up to a few LEDs that run along the perimeter of the LCD display (you can see the red lit up since my engine is not on, and the oil pressure is at zero)

And lastly, the phone mount in the center of the dash provides a convenient location in case I need to use GPS or to just take calls (using a Kinovo bluetooth interface)
The mount is simply the belt clip that came with my phone case, riveted onto a piece of ABS plastic.

Coolant temperature, and Oil pressure gauges:

Could you share how you get the data for the oil and coolant gauges?

 

[psistolic]

I took the oil pressure reading from the same location that the stock oil pressure sensor is located, it's located near the back firewall and on the passenger side wheelwell, and has to be accessed from under the car.
The pics below show the location and the adapters that I used to Tee off the oil pressure sensor port.

If I recall correctly, the stock sensor has 1/8" BSPP threads, so I had to use adapters to mate to the 1/8" NPT hardware that I had.

Since the autometer sender unit was kinda bulky, I didn't want it to just hang off the Tee, which is why there's a SS braided oil line that routes the oil to a separate location near the engine block where I found an unused threaded hole to make a bracket mount.

There's very little room to work around in this area, so have lots of patience if you want to attempt this!
I suppose an easier method is to use a oil filter ring adapter which I've seen other cars do before, which sandwiches between the oil filter and engine block mount.

Hope this helps!

 

[Jonesey]

Very clean - love these mods

 

[GP 2004]

Very good!