tpodowd

LittleJohn - had to cancel the MS thing yesterday as it started to **** rain. Meeting the guy Sunday so will compare then.

takahashi

Will be interested to hear... very good.

I think if you are happy with it, you should write to the aftermarket magazine about it.

Richard Paul will be famous then for sure

Preacher

Bookmarked,a very cool thread.

Gomez

Nope. The original shifter has a big bulge half way up. This is full of rubber. The rubber attaches the lower shaft to the upper part of the shifter and acts as a noise insulator. Richard's shifter does not have this, so a little noise is transmitted into the cabin. However there is an upside which you have already referred to....
^^^^^^^^^^And that's it in a nutshell. You can't make an omelette without cracking eggs. The slight gear whine is the trade-off for the positive engagement you feel through the RP SnickShifter. You can turn the stereo back up now...

Gomez.

tpodowd

Gomez, I think you're on to something regarding all that rubber :o !!! I wonder would little lips also help a bit though? I'm not sure what material that part goes up against in the gear box. I'm sticking the RP one back in tomorrow anyway. I usually drive around with the radio off these days as I love listening to my exhaust... Guess a little bit might of music might help.

By the way, the shifter has changed quite a lot since you took that photo. Here's an updated one

Richard Paul

iTrader: (5)

Let me try to understand this "whine" you have. As I read this it started a few days after you installed it. So it didn't do it at first?
Next do you walk around with a stethascope? I have never heard the input shaft stop turning when I put the clutch down. This is what you are hearing when you do what you said, listing to the trans at a stop. This also includes the clutch disc which rides on it.

If that noise bothers you get an AT. There have been critics of gear noise and I cannot say it is car specific or owner specific. For myself I cannot hear much more then stock whine in my car or anyone elses that I have driven using my shifter.
Wendsday two high up tech persons with MazdaUSA drove my car quite a bit and did not have any comment on gear whine. One of them I had to tell there was a shifter kit in it. He thought their test car must be getting sloppy.

I don't listen to the sound system while driving and I am always listining for something to go wrong and I can't hear a thing. The stock rubber bushing in the stick dampens vibrations more then sound. True the solid stick will give better transfer of sound but not that much. Consider that up the point where the rubber is on the stock one the sound should be the same.

Next your theory about the lower shoe not covering the lower ball that doesn't fly either. The stick cannot touch anything or it would get stuck. Plus if you think about it the point of closest distance will be out of gear. It travels in an arc so when in any gear there will be more clearance to the bottom.

How about you make a little test just to humor me. Put your exact shifter in your buddies car and see if it does the same thing. That will answer the question as to car to car differences. I will be real supprised to find this is the case. If it is then there are a couple of cars out there that can't use the shifter. But that thought is stupid as I sit here writing it.

There are some people who have had gear whine and worked it out, that is how we found the green thingie should be removed. It may be that some people are more critical of gear whine because they pick up that sort of noise more than others. Just like people with hearing aids can hear certain sounds and not others.

Lastly I don't know how the shifter has changed since Gomez installed his. There is a .008" change in tab size. Can't be seen with the eye much less in a photo.
Gomez picture has the grease on it and yours does not, so it looks different.

Richard Paul

iTrader: (5)

Tom, If all else fails you may as all other buyers return the parts for a refund. Less S&H.

zoom44

first tthats good to hear richard and second i couldnt see the difference in his pic and gomez's. thanks for letting me know im not that blind

tpodowd

Richard,

Thanks for your reply. I plan to stick the shifter back in again today now that I have a good feeling on cabin noise with stock.

I first noticed the particular sound that I started hearing mid drive. I had been shifting quite a lot admiring the new box. I hadn't noticed any noise up to that point. Then there was a very pronounced change in the sound. This is why I thought I'd broken something and changed the shifter out to see if I also could hear the sound with stock. Good news is that the sound is gone so nothing broken. I'll be switching back to your shifter again.

I guess I've sensitive hearing This particular sound at idle doesn't bother me at all. I have just never noticed it before and it happens with stock too. Its normal.

Thats great that you don't hear any sound. As I said, I'm putting it back in and will ignore the sound, turn on the radio and enjoy the clean shifting. Meeting some mates on Sunday so I'll let them drive (without saying anything about noise) and see if they notice/mention it.

Good to know. Thanks.

He has the MazdaSpeed shifter so it would be a bigger job. I'll know more on Sunday anyway.

I guess the main difference that I noticed between the pics was the increased size of the reverse lockout *** that sticks out to the right. The one shown in Gomez's photo is visibly thinner, where as the new one is more thick like stock. No biggie.

Richard, don't get me wrong. I'm a fan of the feel of the new shifter. I'm putting it back after breakfast. I'm not whining just for the sake of whining but the noise spooked me and I wanted to understand it. If its normal than I don't really care about it and will be a happy camper purely for the improved shifting.

Thanks,

Tom.

Gomez

Actually boys, the shifter in that pic is #3 off the lathe. The reverse lockout tab is half the thickness of the shifters now being produced.

tpodowd, Richard changed the lockout tab design early on to accomodate slight variances between gearboxes.

Gomez.

ikagan

I have to agree with Tom about the noise, there’s a very
audible whine when shifting 2-3. The short term solution is to use the
Stereo … In the long run maybe we can find out a way to isolate
this whine?

That said, the shift feel is so much better than stock I will NEVER go
back!

As a side note: Just drove my brothers Boxter S, the shift throw is
sooo long it feels like driving a truck…

tpodowd

Put the RP shifter back in yesterday. The shifting is razor sharp again

I went to a RX8 meetup today and a couple of Japanese guys tried the shifter out (when the car was off). Everyone was amazed at how positive it felt. Some expressed concern over 3rd/5th being so close but I don't even think about that now and told them so. Maybe we'll see a few orders there... I think I've sown a few seeds.

My mate with the MS shifter was there too. The MS shifter to me feels much like the stock shifter although its less sloppy than stock. The RP shifter is definitely in a world of its own though. I like the switch like action that it gives which you don't get from the other ones. My mate commented that MS shifter is probably what mazda should have released out of the factory in the first place which I thought was a pretty accurate assesment. The RP shifter is in a different league though. Definitely a more racey feel.

Talking to the Japanese guys I discovered something else that I have to check out. R-Magic sells an extension-like cap that fits onto the bottom of the stock shifter. Supposedly gets rid of a lot of the play and gives more positive feedback. I'm going to buy one of these babies and fit it on my stock to compare the difference between stock, the capped stock and the RP shifter. I'm getting pretty good at fitting these things now

Regarding noise, was driving my girlfriend around today with radio off and windows closed. She commented (without prompting) that my engine was making a funny noise. She thought it was coming from the dash but couldn't pin-point it. I asked her to turn her ear towards the shift lever and she confirmed that the noise she was hearing was coming from there. Windows open you can't hear it. Stereo on you can't really hear it unless you know what to look out for. She didn't have a stetiscope with her :-)

As for the noise, I hear it mostly when I touch the lever. For example, 2nd to 3rd You hear is as you hit 3rd 3rd to 2nd you hear it as you leave 3rd and hit 2nd. You can hear it if you take your foot off the gas 1-4. Love the shifting so will ignore the sound for now. I'm sure in a while I won't notice it. I'm jealous of you guys that don't hear anything!

Lock & Load

tpodowd

"Talking to the Japanese guys I discovered something else that I have to check out. R-Magic sells an extension-like cap that fits onto the bottom of the stock shifter. Supposedly gets rid of a lot of the play and gives more positive feedback. I'm going to buy one of these babies and fit it on my stock to compare the difference between stock, the capped stock and the RP shifter. I'm getting pretty good at fitting these things now" Quote.

I have the RP shifter installed and the slight noise it makes far outweighs the original long and sloppy shift .Ireally enjoy rowing through the gears and occasionally hearing the slight noise it lets me know that i have a fine piece of automotive engineered car thats alive and helps me get involved with my car .

Totally sanytary quiet cars like a Lexus are boring to drive lack character and warmth .

Let us know your findings on the R-M agic extension cap.

cheers
michael

Gomez

Here it is. It's only for the RX-7 shifter I believe. At least it was six months ago....

I talked about it with Richard in the original "RP Shifter....get in the queue" thread. It would only transmit more noise than you already have......and it wont fit on Richard's shifter anyway. Different size ball to the original Mazda shifter.

Gomez.

tpodowd

Hi Gomez, was only thinking of trying it out on the stock shifter. Richards is already as direct as I could want :-) I'm pretty sure its avail for the 8. I found it advertised in the latest RX-8 tuning mag beside all the other parts. I'll ring them tomorrow to find out for sure.

tpodowd

Phoned R-Magic today and confirmed that the "shifter collars" as they call them are available now for the 8. Did one better and went down to try their demo car. While it feels better than stock (there is less play), its nowhere near as nice as Richards shifter in my opinion. My curiosity is cured I'm sticking with the RP shifter, sound and all.

They do make the collars for 5 speed cars though so maybe for anyone with a 5SP it might be worth looking in to as it is better than stock. That is of course until Richard comes out with a 5SP shifter :-)

Tom.

Razz1

tpodowd, aren't you talking about the throw out bearing?

That's a normal noise in the 8. Once it starts it doesn't go away.

california style

Can i just say that every so often i imagine having the stock shifter back in my 8, and shiver with horror.

tpodowd

I don't think its the throw out bearing. As far as I know you can hear that when you put the clutch in at idle. The idle noise that I hear (which I don't really care about) is when I have the clutch out. This noise is normal in the 8 but just amplified a little by the new shifter. No biggie.

The noise that I find irksome, but am trying hard to ignore, is when driving along in 2nd for example, if I put my hand on the shifter and move it to the left/right a little I hear a scraping sound (kinda like a bad bearing but I'm unsure what it is). Now I know people will say, well don't do this and normally I don't touch the lever in gear, but this is the exact sound that I hear on some gear changes usually 2nd or 3rd. Its not gear grinding due to bad clutch timing but something else on the end of the gear change. Bad syncro?

Anyway, just to re-iterate, love the shifter, most people don't hear anything, go get yourself one if you haven't already got one. Huge difference!

PS. what's the correct way to go from 2nd to 3rd, 4th to 5th or vise versa? Is it up-across-up or is it diagonally-up? I've mostly done the 1st way, but this gearbox is now so short that I sometimes find myself heading diagonal?

Tom.

Rosso Diablo

Greetings all. I've had the shifter installed now for a couple of weeks. My initial impressions are largely very positive. Indeed it changes the character of the car significantly or to be more accurate the driver! It may be just me but I find myself driving in a far more sporty manner using the gears far more frequently rather than my old lazy self. Well done RP.

However there is no doubt that the noise(s) discussed ad-infinitum (in my case mainly confined to 2nd) is intrusive. It sounds like a distressed gasp of somebody on 2 packets a day.

My questions are aimed at those who have tried the various suggested fixes, especially removal of the green wadding. Is it worth messing around any further or do we live with it?

Also, has anybody achieved better results with an after-market gear ****? Given that removal or loosening of the standard **** has a dramatic effect i.e. removal cures it totally, perhaps there is a quick fix out there somewhere.

RP, I was in LA last week, should have come and seen you and the yellow beast!

Cheers

Richard Paul

iTrader: (5)

Just tried something using the latest of Little Johns fixes. We made some longer white rings and put one in my car, placing the boot much further down. I haven't tried it yet as it;s getting washed right now.
BUT, Dana took it apart, just couldn't wait for me. And he broke the TAB. Yes folks Dana did it, even after I told him how to do it, he didn't listen.

After I test it I'll let you know if there is a difference. Trouble is that I didn't hear much noise to start with. Who has noise that wants to try this new fix? I'll supply a new part to you but you'll have to change it yourself. If you don't object to the current install don't get the new part just for the sake of it. Wait until we get some feed back. I'll tell you if I hear any difference in a couple of hours.

Anyway, thanks to the boys from Oz for the continuing field testing.

maxrx8

This should be called the micro touch shifter. It came in the mail yesterday, one day earlier than expected.

I am glad that I made this my first Mod. It helps me appreciate the car that I bought.
This makes the car seem so much more crisp. I just have to get used to not wanting to pull back so far. I am wanting to try to put the car in second.

I'll have to drive it on the city streets for about an hour or two just to see.
Good Gas milage...Good Gas milage... We don't need no stink'n Good Gas milage :D

Thanks RP

Bill

Richard Paul

iTrader: (5)

The longer white ring makes no difference as far as I can tell.
Then again mine isn't one of the ones making noise to start with.
I'll send some out to people who seem to have noise. For beta testing.

rxeightr

Richard,
Have you come up with a fix for existing RP Shifters that cannot get into 5th while riding the wall? I am interested, as my wife refuses to drive it as is.

Richard Paul

iTrader: (5)

Remind me, is it that if you push it full over it woulnt go in? Or is it just hard to put in and you have to push hard over? I need to know which way your car is. This can be solved by using a longer tab or filing the one you have.

If it is to short I will send you another shifter, if it is to long then you can just file a little off or send it back for me to do. The way you discribe it I think it must be short. There will be some new ones available next week. Let me know and I'll send you one. Install it and send back the old one. I can send that to someone having the other problem. (after replacing all the polimer parts first)

PS, You say your wife refuses to drive your car like that's a bad thing.