what should i do with my money!!?

[coyfish]

In the instrucions it told me to remove the "shifter cable." This is the shoulder joint ball in socket thing that the shifter connects to the rest of the tranny. Basically the instructions said to simply slide it off but on my car there was an extra plate on the side you are supposed to slide it off on. This plate was connected by a screw on the bottom. This cheap screw was in there so tight I knew it was going to get stripped. Anyway the pain was sawing it out of such a tight spot. My electric saw wouldnt fit in there so I had to manually saw it with a paper thin saw for like over 2 hours. Sliced my finger while I was at it. After that ordeal was done it didnt take me too much longer.

This is the only car ive ever really worked on and im learning as I go but there are engineers that make these clips. Its like they design most of the clips to be as cumbersome and impractical as possible. Hmmm where should we put this clip . . . how bout the bottom where you cant see it or stick your finger!

A bit frustrated still but I think i will start liking the shifter more after I drive it a few times. I love the 1 inch lower knob tho.

 

[simplymurderous]

if you want to save some money i have a used ets tmic, street unit boost tubes, turbosmart bov, magnaflow catback, and an injen CAI...if your interested in anything just let me know and ill give you more info and pics

 

[tunersteve]

In the instrucions it told me to remove the "shifter cable." This is the shoulder joint ball in socket thing that the shifter connects to the rest of the tranny. Basically the instructions said to simply slide it off but on my car there was an extra plate on the side you are supposed to slide it off on. This plate was connected by a screw on the bottom. This cheap screw was in there so tight I knew it was going to get stripped. Anyway the pain was sawing it out of such a tight spot. My electric saw wouldnt fit in there so I had to manually saw it with a paper thin saw for like over 2 hours. Sliced my finger while I was at it. After that ordeal was done it didnt take me too much longer.

This is the only car ive ever really worked on and im learning as I go but there are engineers that make these clips. Its like they design most of the clips to be as cumbersome and impractical as possible. Hmmm where should we put this clip . . . how bout the bottom where you cant see it or stick your finger!

A bit frustrated still but I think i will start liking the shifter more after I drive it a few times. I love the 1 inch lower knob tho.

Actually, I had that same problem now that you say that. I bored it out after I stripped it out, and didn't have to worry about it again. Glad you like the new feeling.

 

[coyfish]

Haha thx man. Yeah it was funny at the end of the instructions there was an asterisk. It spoke of this mystery part holding the shifter cable. Said "might be difficult to remove." Rofl thanks for telling me now stupid instructions !

 

[spd_freak]

I'm so glad I'm not the only person feeling that pain...
Took me a good 3 hours for the stage 2 install because of that plate mazda decided to build to survive thru nuclear warfare.
Can't tell you the amount of obscenities I yelled at my car.
Love the shifter anyways though.

Now I noticed you want to keep your car quiet. As much as I love my forge bpv... in combination with the cp-e air intake it is loud....very loud.
its not too noticeable with the stock box but add that cold air intake and it turns heads. I loved the products and would recommend them to you with no doubt but if thats not what your looking for you might want to wait for a short ram air? I dont have experience with them but I have heard...and i would assume...that because the mouth is in your engine bay instead of your fender it would reduce the noise.

just my .02

 

[chiefmg]

I also had the plate you all speak of on my car. Part of the problem is that the head is a metric Phillip's (or maybe Japanese, I can't recall). With mine, I ended up cutting off the head with my Dremel then unscrewing the rest from the bottom with a set of Vise-Grips. If I were to do it all over, I would remove the whole shift plate from the car (I like to see how little I have to do to make a job easier). It was definitely worth the effort though. I have a B&M short shifter on my Protege, and while better than stock it is nowhere close to the TWM on my Speed. Even my fiance likes it, the extra effort required to shift is more than offset by the reduced throws.

I have a Forge BPV w/Mazdaspeed CAI, and I love the sound. It is definitely louder than stock, I love how it turns people's heads when I go by (I am sure most think that my car is broken!).