and i said that i disagreed that you HAVE to have a weighted ****

 

you disagree with everybody............you only agree with yourself!

 

and who exactly are you

 

 

Threads would be boring with it

 

Interesting. I'd like to keep updated on this for long term reliability. I have the STS mod and ES bushings and this might finish the shifting mods for me. I'd really like to see how it feels when shifting. I'm used to the truck sized shifter.

 

Finished the installation today, pretty straight forward. I absolutely love this mod, and shifting feels great. A little shorter in throw, not any more effort. But its more comfortable than originally because normally my elbow is lower than the ****, now the **** is lower and feels much more natural. This is the way it should have come from the factory.
Highly recommended mod if you are unhappy with the current set-up. STS next weekend.
Now what to do with my original one?

 

were you concerned about the weld/lock-out failure?

 

before:

after:

 

that does look nice...shifts should be greatly improved with the STS and bushings...

 

In those pictures, is the car in 3rd gear? Otherwise...

 

Looks great. If I brought you a spare shifter assembly, could you do this for me? You're in CT, so you're not too far.

 

Could have raised up the arm rest to the higher position...

Looks great though - always thought the shifter stood out like a sore thumb in the 6 speeds. Seems like an all-round worthwhile mod if it has performance benefits in addition to looking great. Nice work.

 

I'm waiting to recieve the bushings and then i will do both for the day

I'm pretty sure it was in first. Why?

I actually bought my car in mass , i dont mind doing it except it will take a few days so... its up to you

 

Looks great. Nice work

 

Looks great. Much needed mod. Is it easy to weld. Id need to have it done, so any suggestions for me to tell the welder. What do you think a welder should charge? Does reverse lock out work well?

 

I will paypal you money for this right now.

Kamski

 

Man, the 5th gen looks so much more sucky than the 5.5 gen. Unless its just my car

 

Oh okay same thing. I was just making sure it wasn't in neutral because you'd have a hell of a time getting it into an upper gear.

 

It was tricky to weld because there is a plastic piece molded to the shaft which would get extremely hot if you continuosly welded around the shaft, so i layed a bead then quenched it. Did that process a few times. Grounding the shaft was tricky too.
The reverse lock-out works exactly as it used to, perhaps a little better as i lubed it a little.
I have no idea what a welder would charge or if he would even do the project considering what its for

 

i actually think my shifter still ended up shorter than yours, although i had put a little more work in

 

Camber, Caster and Toe measurements at lower ride heights please.

 

yours is lower. Looks real good. I cut the threaded section off only. So however many inches that portion is, is how much lower it is. Either way it goes, stock is too high.

 

any opinions on using JBweld on the shaft? I feel like i will most likely just rethread the top but if i dont think i will be able to then i will cut it. would prefer to use Jbweld over having someone weld it but if i have to get it welded then fine

 

I wouldn't recommend it, but its your car. I feel that something as important as a shifter modification should be done 100%, no cutting corners so to speak.
If you have a 5th gen, i'm not sure what the shaft looks like, its different.
The 5.5, i dont think cutting the threaded portion is a good idea because the shaft starts to taper and then your looking at machining that down to threading diameter. Then the daunting task of running a die over that a few times.

 

 

Go look at the angle your axle sits at when it's lowered


But this is ot...



Shifter looks great.

 

Thanks for the comments,
started the mod on my original one today (cutting the shaft/lock out ect.)

 

That does look nice, how does it drive though?

 

thanks, car drives fine. but ii think it shifts better now

 

so, how is it holding up? i did this to mine about a week ago. cut a little more than you (bout 2") and eliminated that lower pin since i decided it doesnt really do anything. only difference without the lower pin is that the revers lock-out will spin in circles and detach from the purple slider. nothing a little black RTV didnt take care of. reason im asking is that my lockout sleeve was doing great, and then out of nowhere yesterday it broke the epoxy bond, so i had to pull the boot off and lift the slider by hand anytime i wanted reverse. hopefully yours didnt do that. im gonna apply extremely generous amounts of epoxy to it tonight. then when it dries, apply another ridiculous amount to it. lol. hopefully your epoxy was a little better. mine was SUPPOSED to be 2 ton...guess it wasnt 2 ton shear modulus

 

Mine has been fine, i love it.
As for the reverse lock-out, the lower pin that you removed is there to limit sheath travel and rotation. The sheath should only move like a quarter of an inch or so. I dont understand how yours broke. Did you rough up the plastic enough to get a good bond? What did you use the RTV for?

 

yeah, i thought about that pin for a while and knew what i was doing when i removed it. i just made sure that when i cut the sheath that i had it just right as far as using the shift **** to limit travel, that part works well. i roughed up the plastic, but i feel like i just didnt really get enough on there to get a good bond. it should be better this time. the RTV i used to keep the sheath from rotating, since i took the lower pin out of the equation. i sealed the sheath onto the purple slider by putting some RTV into the connector between the two, that part works well too. overall i really like the result and i cant wait to race on it soon. the only problem has been the sheath connection and that oughta be an easy solution

 

Do you have any pics of it? id like to see some. You welded the pieces together? Good luck with the repair on the lock out.

 

How are the shifters holding up? Anyone else try this?

 

no problems with the shifter. I love this mod BTW. My original one will be ready shortly if anyone is interested. I had to put the project on hold for a while, so its taken longer than i expected.

 

Wow looks great awesome job great write up and pics. I wish I had a six speed and I would definatley do this. Now enjoy you great work.

 

What on earth did you use to 'quench' it? I hope not water. If so I think you got lucky. You can't heat something up to red hot and then dunk it in water. Use an air gun. How much room is there in the plastic sleeve? Just wondering if you could put a metal sleeve where the weld is and then weld above and below



I think this would work better (if there is room) and you can guarantee the shaft will stay straight

 

The Shift lever never reached "red hot" temperatures as you implied. Yes water was used to quench the metal.

I don't understand the plastic sleeve idea you had. Why would you use a metal sleeve? For support? The plastic sleeve does not go to the bottom of the shaft where the wweld is. The weld is solid and has never moved or bent. I wanted to retain the plastic sleeve for the reverse locckout functionality. thanks