Greetings,

I have installed my new SMC STS and while I like the new short throw, I feel worry about the stiffness of the shifting.
It has become really hard to shift (nowhere near it was in stock form). Shifting into 1st and 2cond actually feels like I am forcing it (have to jam it in).
I know that the pivot is different that stock. The stock one has a center pin that is also spacer and holds the sides of the shift arm tight together while giving enough clearance for the shifter arm to pivot freely. Also, the inner sides of the arm mate with a delrin pair of inserts (in the stock) that make shifting softer and forgiving. The SMC has metal instead of delring inserts and these may grind against the inner sides of the arm (even though I have greased these).
Also the pivot pin on the SMC, has no spacer and if tighten hard enough, it will impede all motion of the shifter. I think the source of the stiffness is in the torque applied to the pin and corresponding nut against the arm's bracket (that holds the STS pivot). The concern is that if I lossen this too much, the pin may become loose and eventually fall (even though the nut has a plastic stopper).
I thought of a counter nut (a nut tighten against the other nut to prevent it from loosening) and I figure I share this with you.
A question, Has any of you guys seen this problem?. How did you solve it?,

Thanks,

 

You didn't even mention adjusting (pounding) the heat shield. If you didn't, and adjusted the pivot ball on the SMC to be at least 1/2 way down the threads, I guarantee you're rubbing the bottom of the shifter mechanism against that heat shield.

I thought my SMC was stiff as hell too until I pulled out the shield and pounded out a little more clearance. After that, the SMC was almost as easy to shift as stock. Really not much worse. And yeah, 1/2 were the WORST gears to shift into/out of when I still had clearance problems.

FYI I installed my SMC to ~2/3rds the minimum throw.

 

I installed my SMC with the shortest throw. Keven97SE said, make sure you bent your heat shield a little.

The shifter seemed to need a little time to "break in". After a few days it became really easy to shift...either that or I got a lot stronger

 

because apparently I'm a retard. I was under my car all psyched about installing my shifter and ready to go and I couldn't figure out how the friggen cat and ypipe come apart.

There's a heat shield over and under my cat (a 96). I know I have to get to the one underneath it to remove it, but do I also have to remove the one on top of it?

HOW DO I GET THE F%$#!@* YPIPE AND CAT SEPERATED!!!!

lol sorry, i just hate feeling so helpless

Chris

 

Yeah, I know.

Anyways, I posted this to the mailing list yesterday, but there are two nuts that you could see if you are looking at it from the front side of the car....take those off and pull it apart.

If you still need help email me and I can take a pic or two when I get home and post them for ya'.

 

you don't have to take off the heat shield under the cat, just the one above it(attached to the underside of your car). the y-pipe separates from the cat where they meet at a hanger. there are two 14mm bolts, use some wd40 and pull like hell. a breaker bar helps. air tools help even more =Þ.
and then there are two more 14mm bolts on the other end of the cat...same thing. then there are 6 10mm screws holding the top heat shield to the car. there you go.

 

ok i think i got it now - but wait ,are you saying to take the cat off completely, like disconnect it front and back??

Chris

 

yeah, i took it completely off. heck, might as well get it out of the way. i'm not sure if you can do it without taking it off because everytime i've done it, i just took it all off. it's just 2 more bolts.

 

Greetings,

Thank you for all the responses and suggestions. I did however band the heat shield and it is clear for the ****er motion. As it turns out, if the nut and bolt (actually the pin) is too tight it will cause it to be so stiff that it will even stop moving.
I think I have to lift the car and lossen it a bit.
I did put the ball at almost top (about 1/4 inch from the end of the thread to the upper edge of the ball or a bit more than 2/3 more like 4/5).