Short shifter - Cheap ebay type

[jb92563]

I did my ~$50 ebay short shifter install.

It looks identical to the B&M unit for $295.

I found that I had to modify it a bit so it could reach full throw.

I had to grind a bit of aluminum off the bottom where it interferes with the plastic frame and I also had to grind a bit of plastic off the frame to clear the pivot bolt.

I also ground the pivot bolt where it protrudes past the nut.

I don't like the slop in the pivot bolt but I'll drive it first to see if I like the results overall, and if so I'll take it apart again and put some proper metal spacers and some teflon washers to remove the slop.

I also found about $20 in coins when I removed all the console parts, that will lighten the car considerably

[tommy583]

So did you get a chance to drive with it yet? How do you like it?

[hancock1701]

Originally Posted by jb92563

I did my ~$50 ebay short shifter install.

It looks identical to the B&M unit for $295.

I found that I had to modify it a bit so it could reach full throw.

I had to grind a bit of aluminum off the bottom where it interferes with the plastic frame and I also had to grind a bit of plastic off the frame to clear the pivot bolt.

I also ground the pivot bolt where it protrudes past the nut.

I don't like the slop in the pivot bolt but I'll drive it first to see if I like the results overall, and if so I'll take it apart again and put some proper metal spacers and some teflon washers to remove the slop.

I also found about $20 in coins when I removed all the console parts, that will lighten the car considerably

That's exactly what I did to my cheap one as well. The front bolt was hitting the plastic frame, but it's fine. I added a few rubber and metal spacers to reduce that side to side sloppiness, and it is much tighter now.

[jb92563]

Originally Posted by tommy583

So did you get a chance to drive with it yet? How do you like it?

Now that I've driven it for a couple weeks I LOVE IT!

The extra side play in the stick pivot axis is not even noticeable so I may not bother fixing it for a while.
Now that I think about the sideplay, its not a factor at all because the stick still transmits the forces to the shift cable directly.

It does take a bit of relearning to adjust to the new tighter shifts but they pop into gear much crisper and allows a faster clutch-shift-clutch motion.

Overall the shifting motion is much quicker and smoother once you get used to it.

The feel is that the throw is half of stock, even though the measured change is only 25%.

The length of the shifter handle is the same but they have brought the pivot point a bit higher and that gives the arm greater length and hence takes less distance to complete a shift.

The faster clutch-shift-clutch motion feels more fluid and seems to make the shifts smoother I think.

Every now and then I still miss the 3rd and pop into 5th instead but I did those with the standard shifter as well on occasion but now its faster so the correction is faster as well.

If you are careful to mark the existing shifter cable position with a marker before dis-assembly then everything goes right back to where it was before so its a painless upgrade and totally worth the ~$60 and couple hours of time, plus you may find treasure in the console like it did and bring the price of the upgrade down to $30 after counting up all the loose change hiding under the ashtray.