Short shift

[Loveless]

Hi all;

A couple of months ago I went to a friend's friend's garage to get a cheap DIY 100k service on my EK1 HB. Out of curiousity I asked him how much it would cost to prep my car for a short shift to which he answered no worries I'll do it for you for free so he proceeds to do some high-tech sh*t (at least to my noob vision its high tech) which involves cutting some stuff out from my car. Next cuple of months I'm here checking out posts and short-shift kits and I want to get one myself. Can anyone of u gurus pls tell me wtf he did to my car in the first place and whether the damage is irreparable or something and whether i can install a genuine short-shift in my car this time round?

[OHH NO]

i think he just cut your existing shifter shorter and welded it back on.. :thumbdwn:

[tRipitaka]

i think he just cut your existing shifter shorter and welded it back on.. :thumbdwn:

if he did, then just purchase a short shifter and bolt in bolt out job..

if he cut anything else then it could be a different story..

[Limbo]

there is no preping for a short shifter. To get a shorter shift you need to change the length of the bottom part of the shifter to get it to be shorter.

The shifter works off a pivot so if you change the length of the bottom then the shifter will move a larger distance with less movement from the top shift. I hope that explains it well enough.

[panda[cRx]]

lmfao, whoever it was i wouldnt let them touch your car again.

as limbo said short shifters are not called short shifter because of the height of the stick. it's due to the increase leverage when shifting gears, hence 'shortening' the throw of the shift

there is no cutting involved, you just need to simply undo and remove the old shifter and put the new one in the reverse order. should take the average noob about 30mins?

http://www.mz3.net/articles/images/143-compare.jpg
http://www.driftbitz.com/products/shortshifters/images/shifter_illustration.gif

[Loveless]

Thanks guys (oh noo, tripitaka, limbo, panda[crx]) for the clarification. I guess I won't be sending my car there anytime ever. Ok so if he did exactly what oh noo and tripitaka said he might be doing: shortening the shifter and welding it back on: will there be some damage or anything like that? If so; what (damage) should I be expecting and how to fix it?

[zerospel]

Hi

Ive got an EK1 as well with B&M shortshifter kit (US brand) and the instruction it comes with is very good that I was able to do it myself and no im not a mechanic.

I just needed to go under the car and unbolt the stock shift stick and replaced it with the B&M one.

I also installed the B&M shortshift bushings or whatever it was called to make it firmer which feels like type R or s2000 shifts, this required some cutting and I got a bit confused with this one but I figured it out.

I bought it from rocket industries, I forgot where it was as its been 6 yrs ago or so...

So it wasnt that much of a high tech rocket science since even I could do it :)

[simbadda54]

i think in some cars the shifter is sitting under the cat so u need to unbolt the cat to get to it.

[stocky]

To get a shorter shift you need to change the length of the bottom part of the shifter to get it to be shorter.

basic physics means that you would want it to be longer not shorter

[JasonGilholme]

I think he meant that but didn't say it clearly enough.

He should have said this:

To get a shorter shift you need to change the length of the bottom part of the shifter to be longer, to get the shift to be shorter.

[Limbo]

yeah thanks Jason that's what i meant. Need to lengthen the bottom to get the shift to be short. Ya gotta read the second line to get that ;)