i was usin stock tranny and engine mounts in my car, but the OS giken grabs hard my tranny would get movin around prettty good, but a couple time at the drags i'd miss third and ground 5th, I can shift lol but it would jut pop me over there ad it'd be a little Zing, i did it once after on the road and totally lost Reverse and 5th wouldnt fully engage and would pop out, this tranny was really good it'd shift 1-4th smooth as can be, i'd gotten mad and just tried jammin it lol didnt work, just chewed my syncro up a bit.....
I pulled the rear tail stock off the tranny lifted up the plate , and then took off the oil guard by the 5th gear,

and you could see the little burrs on the clutch hub sleeve's dog teeth, that would catch on a lip in the clutch hub so it wouldnt let it go at all into reverse and then the burrs would catch on the 5th gear syncro so it wouldnt engage 5th,
So i got a little chisel and chipped the burrs off the teeth then pounded the shift rod into reverse with a rubber mallet while turrnin the output shaft back and forth to break off the rest of the burrs, then i just kept workin it from 5th and reverse to wear downt the burrs
i put it back in and tried it works as good as new goes into reverse nice and easy and 5th gear work perfect no grinding or anything , i'd also read that the FD had an upgraded shift lock cylinder to prevent the 3/5 shift prblem so i tried just stretching the spring to put more pressure on it to see if it helps, if i have problems later on it actually not to hard to change the 5th gear syncro and clutch hub sleeve its about 85 worth of parts

im pretty happy cuz the 1-4th were perfect,no 5th and reverse work like a new tranny too

heres some pics the 5th gear syncro is alittle chewed up probably from em trying to jam it in but its still usable, theres no grinding when i shift so im happy, maybe i can help you guys save a few trannies
im gettin the MMR engine tranny mounts

 

so you clean up all the crap inside the tranny from repeatedly grinding gears, and then 5th gear and reverse started working again?

 

yeah pretty much
in that last picture where that red arrow is you can see the little ledge it was catchin on and the burrs on the clutch hub sleeve's dog teeth, you just have to break burrs off so the clutch hub sleeve doesnt catch on anything, i'd already knocked off the burrs there , they did hang over the lip more


i think this may be why some people have such a hard time getting their cars into reverse
mine goes into reverse as smooth as any gear same with 5th

 

I've heard stories of people having issues with the rx-7 trannys loosing 2nd and reverse so I pulled mine and had a buddies mechanic modify the teeth on it. It pretty much pulls itself into reverse if you move it into that area now.

 

yeah mine goes into reverse effortlessly

 

did you have to pull the extension housing and basically disassemble the whole tranny for this? What did you remove? I had my whole tranny rebuilt and it definitely goes into gear more smoothly.

 

its actually really easy, i took off the tail housing/shifter housing as one piece just followed the FSM, but you have to remove the speedometer assembly and neutral switch , then i removed the end shift fork, and that metal plate will slide up to the bottom of the dampner , then theres a little oil guard held on by 2 bolts and you can get right to the 5th gear like in the picture

to remove the 5th gear syncro inst much more work you just have to remove the c-clips on the speedo drive gear, that huge nut on the output shaft , remove the dampner , remove the bearing with a gear puller with extension straps, then the 2 nuts holdin 5th gear and the counter 5th gear and the 5th gear will slide off and you can switch out the syncro then you can remove the push pin outta the 5th/reverse shift fork and slide out the 5th/rev clutch hub sleeve and swap that out or repair it

I wanted to see if i could just fix it for free and it worked out really well, those gears work like new again

 

sweet,

my 5th gear is starting to grind when I put it in gear, I figured it is the syncros.

Im gunna have to either do this or get new syncros in the spring.

good little write up!

 

after i'd first missed at the drags my 5th would be a pain to get in, if you look inbetween the syncro teeth you can see where the burrs were scrapin on the syncro

i'd only missed shift a few times and then the gears were gone

this page has really good step by step guide, the FD trannies are basically the same internally as the TII trannies
http://www.davidgeesaman.com/

 

so where exactly can we get a parts list or find parts for these things?

my 5th gear and reverse are pretty much doing this. reverse i can get into, but 5th grinds like a mother.

 

parts fiche for OEM mazda parts number http://www.rotaryheads.com/PDF/2nd_gen/

S5 5th/rev clutch hub sleeve part #R501-17-622
5th gear syncro W501-17-725A
you'd need the main shaft bearing to but all the parts are cheap

 

Yea I have a messed up 5th but it has not given any reverse issues. I had a broken engine mount I did not know about and kept hitting 5th instead of 3rd because the tranny would twist. Im suprised how sturdy it was did it like 10 times before it really messed it up.

 

I put polyurethane coated aluminum motor mounts from mmr in my car a few years back. Since the rotary is so smooth it made little vibration difference, but I tell you, those shifts are much more precise because you don't get the rocking back and forth from the soggy stock rubber mounts. They worked so well, I never got around to buying the transmission mounts. I did the poly motor and diff mounts for drivetrain solidity. the transmission pretty much just needs to be held from wiggling and the stock mounts do that well enough I never found a good reason to change them after doing the motor mounts. Solid mounts are a worthwhile upgrade for those who need it

 

yeah same here, had a bad mount and hit 5th a few times.

Yeah solid mounts are the way to go.

 

its only $105 for engine ,tranny and diff mounts from MMR DIRECT