Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Three Wheeler & Super 3 Shifter Relocation?

Hello everyone and i hope all has been well with you all...

Has anyone swapped out their older rearward shifter location and went with the new stock Miata forward shifter location?

Early rearward mounting of the shifter.



Newer to current forward shifter location.



I may have a need for the rearward mounting assembly is someone has swapped out the old for the new.

Let me know.

Thanks and stay safe healthy ya'll...

Dan

Dan, looks impressive. What is the background to this?

Dan,

I have in fact done the conversion to a forward shifter and have the rearward adaptor as surplus. In very good condition I might add. It seems unnecessarily beefy and I don't really understand why MMC went this route when the forward mounting suits the M3W so much better.

Any chance of pics of this conversion please - I don't quite understand it!

The basic conversion is to simply remove the remote shifter housing and relocate the shifter forward, to the location used on the newer M3Ws. The photos Dan provided at the beginning of this thread show an early car gearbox with the remote shifter housing (first photo), with the lower photo showing a later one with the standard Mazda shifter mounting, which is about 7" further forward.

Parts wise, it requires obtaining a top shifter housing (available from Mazda dealers) and suitable modification of the gearbox cover. I found the original shift lever, being dead vertical, was unsatisfactory so modified it to be longer and "cranked" to my liking. I also took the opportunity to make a new gearbox cover that provides more legroom and a generally more open feeling in the cockpit. Here are some photos of the original and new gearbox cover, and the finished installation.

Very impressive.

Nicely done Steve👍

Really nice!

I also like the Little leather pocket just in front of the co-pilot. I guess it's fixed with a couple of press studs, isn't it? Then you can unclip it and take it with you, right?

The leather pocket is a typical motorcycle tool bag, most often seen fitted to the front forks below the headlamp of custom bikes. Press studs or velcro would be a better solution, but I simply used the single bolt fitting for which it was configured, with a thumbscrew so removal is fairly easy, though not super quick. I actually have not felt the need to remove it since it was installed a couple years ago. But then again I don't leave the machine unattended very often or for very long.

Here's a couple more pictures to possibly better explain the setup, early versus new.

Early:



New: