Continuing from the previous post, just a few notes about the Numeric shifter install. To repeat a bit of the intro to that post, I did not like how much wiggle there was in the stock shifter. Keeping in mind, this is an 18 year old car, and when I pulled out the stock shift assembly the date code stamped in the plastic was 09-90. It is possible that from the factory, the feeling in the shift assembly was originally less loose. However, I really did not like that when the car was in gear or in neutral, I could wiggle the handle around a fairly significant distance. Purchasing the whole Numeric kit (short shift assembly and shift cables) was perhaps impulsive, but forced me to learn how this system works. Due to the indirect nature of shifting-via-cable, there is a number of places where slack can develop in the system:

• Mis-adjustment in the cable linkages (relatively easy to fix).
• Failing tolerances in the shift assembly (as in, plastic parts wearing out).
• Failing linkage assembly on the transmission side (may be partially solvable by cable adjustment).
• Movement in the cables themselves (? seems less likely but possible I guess).

I was driving the Miata across town, after it had been sitting parked for many months, and had forgotten how great the shifting felt after I had rebuilt the shift assembly in that car. The NA Miata has the advantage of the shift assembly being built directly into the transmission, which rides in the hump between the driver and passenger seat. (As I am resurrecting this blog to talk about car projects, I’ll get back to what is going on with the poor Miata in a future post. I am going to be working my way backwards on projects, and most of the Miata story happened in 2024.)

Around 10 months ago I picked up a used 2007 Cayman S. During that entire time, the feel of the shifter I would describe as “mushy”. There is a lot of wiggle whether in-gear or not. I got used to it but never really liked it. Driving the Miata made me think, why can’t I just fix this? So I did some research and decided, ok, clearly the answer is a Numeric sport shifter assembly and shifter cables. Having not dealt with them before, I did not fully understand how the shifting by cables worked and that it may have been possible to just adjust the play in the cables without upgrading the assembly. (Quick tip, if you are in that situation, don’t want to spring for expensive upgrades, and are up for pulling apart the dash, you should be able to try adjusting the cables to have less wiggle).

Meanwhile, if I was going to have to pull the whole dash and center console apart anyway, I might as well finally figure out how to install the rear view camera I’d bought months ago and put in a head unit I actually wanted, something with wireless CarPlay. Would it not be better to do this all at once? Hah hah hah. As it turns out the stereo-related work took about two days and the shift assembly work about two hours. No regrets.

As there is not particularly good documentation on how to route the wiring for the rear view camera specifically in the 987.1 Cayman, I am going to focus on that piece of it first. Then I will follow up with routing the CarPlay+GPS antenna, and a few notes about the interface to the BOSE fiber optic sound system when you have that option. In my next post, I will finish up with some notes on the Numeric sport shifter install (I did not get to the shift cables, for reasons I will discuss in that post).