Economical short shift kits
 

I encountered another 986 owner at a gas station today, a guy from the Tri-Cities with a silver '99. He said had just installed a short-shift kit and was delighted with it. It caught my interest because I'll be removing the center console to repaint it, and I figure it would be an ideal time to upgrade my shifter. He'd bought an economical kit from Amazon for about sixty bucks:

https://www.amazon.com/PQYRACING-Short-Shifter-Porsche-Boxster/dp/B07HG21BR6

He said while the Amazon kit might not be quite as good as an expensive one it is nevertheless much better than the stock unit. It comes down to how much you want to spend for a marginally better shift kit.

The folks around here seem big on this one, which sells for $160:

https://www.uniwerksdesign.com/product/bens-porsche-996-986-short-shifter

Has anyone installed one of the Amazon kits and been displeased with it? Or are folks giving this short shifter short shrift?

Buy once, cry once.

:cheers:

I bought Ben's when he first started making these so the cost was much lower from what I remember. I like it but with that said, there have been many installs over the years with a kit like you linked to on Amazon. Whether or not those folks are satisfied or not, I have no idea but the Amazon reviews are decent. There should be some comments on those kits somewhere on the forum as well. In the past they were mostly bought off of eBay.

Yeah, I'd want to hear how other folks who've installed one of the econo-kits feel about it before I took a chance on one. Understand, I'm not opposed to coughing up $160 for Ben's kit, which seems to have only superlative reviews. It would be interesting to see a comparison between the two products. Maybe there's such a minimal difference that it's not worth paying the extra cost. But I suspect a significant difference is, excuse the alliteration, better bearings in Ben's.

I installed a shifter from a 987/997 in my car. The shifts are noticeably smoother and shorter than I experienced with the stock 986 shifter. My research led me to conclude that the 987/997 shifter was better than the less expensive aftermarket shifters.

At the time, I thought a better option would be the Porsche short shift kit from a 987/997. Unfortunately, those were rare, and the available units were considerably more expensive than the stock 987/997 shifters. If I recall correctly, I bought my shifter from a guy who was upgrading to a Porsche short shifter, and I paid a reasonable amount.

I don't have hands-on experience with any of the other shifters.

I found the side to side play on the 987/997 shifter to be too much. Look up the “alexmod” to see what I’m talking about. Rather than buy an expensive kit like the function first shift right, I decide to go with a Ben’s short shifter and side lever. I think the side lever is key for getting rid of selection slop….otherwise I liked the 997 shifter.

Note that Ben’s short shifter has washers to hold the lever in place where it bolts to the pivot arm. I’ve seen other short shifters that don’t have them and they have slop there, similar to where some of the slop was identified in the “alexmod” video.

I assembled Ben’s shifter last night in a donor assembly and plan to install it in a few days. If all goes well I’ll have a nearly new 997 shifter for sale. Less than 1k miles on it.

I installed the cheaper version (I got mine on ebay for less than what you are showing for Amazon) regardless of where you get it, they are all the same. I've seen the same one from performance websites for the same price as a B.A.D., which is insane. The cheap ones are way too short, and I was told by someone who's opinion I trust unconditionally that it would wear out the transmission a lot quicker. I then took it out and put in the B.A.D. v2 from Uniwerks and I couldn't be happier. Shorter than stock, but not too short, probably close to the 997 short shifter that everyone talks about. I got the one with the threaded knob, not the standard Porsche knob, as I wanted some different options, but that did mean I had to figure out a boot. I used one from Amazon and made it fit around the stock plate, I think it worked pretty well. I don't seem to have a picture of it, just of the bare shifter.

Long story short, get the B.A.D. or similar, stay away from the cheap ones.

Thanks for the info, Red. I think I'm going to take your advice. Sometimes it isn't worth saving a few bucks. Call me shifty, but I want the smoothest shifts I can get.

I purchased the Ben's "Make it Easy" Short Shifter, with the Side Lever Kit, already installed in a shifter housing. I haven't had a chance to install it yet. I'll report back once I get it installed.

I purchased one of the inexpensive ones (already installed in a housing), off of a forum member. But, me being me, I continued to do research before I installed that one. I came to the conclusion that I really wanted the Ben's with the side lever kit.

Side note: if anyone wants one of the inexpensive ones, already mounted in a housing, I know where you can get one cheap. :)

I installed the Ben's "Make it Easy" Short Shifter, with the Side Lever Kit yesterday. Holy smokes! This is how the car should have come from the factory. Short, but not too short. Precise, but not notchy. Close to, if not better than the shifter in my NC Miata. Which, until yesterday, was the best shifting action I've experienced. With everyone stating "rifle bolt" action, I was concerned that it was going to be notchy or gate like, and that it was going to take a lot of force to move it. But it's perfect! Just solid, precise shifting. Exactly what I was hoping for.

The install could not have been easier. I had never removed my console before, so I was doing everything for the first time. It was about 55 minutes from the time I walked into that garage, until the time I was back inside with everything put away. And that included a test drive.

NOTE! I can't state this enough! One thing that made a difference and I only saw this on one of the videos that I watched before hand. Mark where the shifter cables are set. Mine were 6 notches in and 4 notches in. If I hadn't marked were they were and was blindly trying to put them back in, who knows if I would have ever got the car back into gear. I not only counted the notches, but wrapped the cable with a piece of tape, where it meets the ball socket. I then took pictures so I could reference exactly were the cables went.

I tried installing one of the Amazon short shifters and it was a giant fail. The bushings they included were not the right size and i couldn't attach the clips. Of course by then I had destroyed my OEM plastic bushings getting them out in the first place. I ended up returning the Amazon shifter and bought new bushings from Phenix Engineering to reinstall my original shifter.

I am going to wait and install the Numeric shifter and cables this winter. I like that the whole assembly is metal and the options for changing short vs long.

Get the…
 

…Porsche factory 987 short shifter.

I have one on my 2004 and it’s awesome.

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