About two weeks ago I had a STS installed and this morning when I was backing down my driveway, I noticed that reverse was way the hell over to the right. I went to put it in first and found it but was still able to move it around like it was in neutral. (even though I am still in gear) What happened here? Did the bolt come lose? I need to know because I do not want to drive it if I don't have to. Thanks

 

Too many variables. Go under and check it out, post pics of your findings if you're unsure.
Jae

 

I have no time to get under the car....let alone stick it on jackstands (which I do not currently own). I was just hoping that someone else had this problem and knew what to do about it. It is currently driveable, just everything is shifted 3" right... and it doesnt feel right to drive this way...

 

What brand of STS is it?

 

The shifter bushing sits in a cage, maybe the cage came undone; though there shouldn't be a reason you touched the cage. When you push the shifter left and right in neutral, does it spring back to center +3" right? Or does it flop and stay to the side when you let go?

Jae

 

****ty obx quality i guess......the throws are considerably short and might even be shorter than the B&M. I doubt its the actual bolt that is broken, cause i would have thought that my car wouldnt be driveable by now. But still.

The shifter springs back to the right (too far) while engaged in 1st and 2nd gears, 3rd and 4th, dont budge, and 5th and reverse are sooo far right I cant believe I am not rubbing against the shifter trim. I am going to see if i can drive a different car this week, but hopefully when I get some time (friday) I am going do put the car on jackstands and take a look to see wtf is up underneath the car.

Right now I am just looking to see if anyone knows what the problem is. And I will go take a few pictures of it now....

 

Neutral



1st gear (me pushing it all the way to the left...yes it moves in 1st and 2nd like its in neutral)



1st gear



2nd gear



3rd gear

 

4th gear



5th gear



Reverse

 

wtf that would bug me out! looks like it's "hooking to the right" hahaha good luck i dont know what is wrong with that.

 

maybe the spring is stretched out that makes the shifter go back to neutral or some bolt that is lose..probably nothing major...I have the same shifter and its been on for about a week and a half..no probs so far thank goodness

 

I originally thought it was the spring too, but it wouldn't relocate all the shifts to the right... it would only allow the shifter to flop left-right in neutral. My guess is the shift linkage got detached. I'mma see if I can find a pic to illustrate. BRB.
Jae

 

You are a huge nerd wolfenhoser.

 

So you have time to take pics, host them, and then post them but you dont have time to jack the car up and take a look under it?

GTFO, why does everyone insists on being spoon fed for everything? I mean some things you just have to put effort into yourself in order to figure them out.

 

i think its a bolt or a spring, but then i wouldnt know how to go about it either man.That wud really mess with my head while driving too.

 

My cat converter has a heat shield that covers where the shifter mechanism is... It's a pita for me to pull out my ramps or jack/stands, get under there to remove the heat shield. However, the minimum I would do is drive my passenger side wheels up a high curb, then crawl under the car via street gutter and have a look-see to find out if the shift rods are loose.

Jae

 

So does mine, takes 30min tops. Ive recently done this a couple of times. Just did a tranny swap and switched out shifters, didnt like the shifter i had swapped out for so a couple of days later went back to my other one. Not hard at all, 5 bolts holding the heat sheild.
I also run a test pipe with a cutout. In order to pass inspection I swap the out everytime to do so.

 

it takes 5 minutes to take pictures. it might take someone a lot longer than that to jump under a car. some people do not have a lot of free time with school, work, and other activities so i don't see a problem with this thread asking this question.

 

True, but add the time to host, then post the thread, and then reply to other posts.
Maybe its just me and i care a bit more for my car to make the time, and trust me Im extremely busy as well. Full time job, two kids, house and two dogs require a lot of attention as well as my car and the wifes car.
If some effort had been applied to try and diagnose the problem then I would symphatize and try to add some usefull info, but if all one is interested in doing is posting a thread and relying on others to diagnose the problem for them then sorry but no. Its not as if its a major issue. Its a shifter. Nothing too technical about it. Even if it was something he couldnt fix, at least jack the car up and take a look to see what the problem is.

 

I see where your coming from. Some days I just don't feel like touching my car.

 

I am sorry to bug people from posting this information but I do not have jackstands at my house and I honestly wont have any time until Friday to even get up under the car. Every day I wake up at 6, go to school till 3, sports till 7 and its dark by 715. I do not know how I can manage to see in the dark but and I was just wondering if anyone had had this problem before. Trust me, I got under the car as far as i could while it was on the ground...but the heat shield and the y pipe are clearly in the way to even see things.

In the mean time, any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

Flava, I completely agree with you. People need to learn to get off their fat a$$ and learn how to fix a fricken car. Oh wow Blackmax99 or w/e, you can take pictures! So can everyone else. Learn how to fix your shifter as it is obviously a result of you not knowing how to drive a manual anyways. Stop wasting everyone else's time that actually works hard and doesn't just take pictures and call it a hard days work. People unlike yourself work hard and dont need to come on here begging for help. /rant

 

dubs1013 your a joke stfu and gtfo

 

Obviously you saw that all my points were valid, so you had to say something immature like that. Us real adults don't talk like were still in high school. Oh wait, that fuxin tool blackmax99 is still in high school. HAHA. Don't you have some homework to do blackmax?

 

hahahaha dubs butt buds with blackmax99MS

 

DAMN, you guys must buy your hatorade in the powder form and mix it up by the gallon! But 99blackmax didn't mention that he payed someone else to do the install so it wasn't really his responsibility to deal with jacking it up, I think he was more so curious if it was cool to drive.


That was my first geuss also, but it turns out the nut fell off of the lower bolt. The bolt/nut that was supplied was just a hair to short to grab onto the nyloc, and as most of you know you can't tourqe that nut down to tight. A longer bolt and some lock-tite and it's all good now, I should have caught that during the install.

Oh and one more word of future advice for anyone installing an obx sts (which is WAYYYYY better than a B&M, it feels much much better AND you don't have to deal with that giant circlip, someone knows what I'm talking about there....) You guys mentioning the heatsheild, I think his car was the first one that none of the heatshields bolt's didn't snap off, but with the ridiculously short obx shifter the heatshield hits the shifter and if you bend it down far enough to clear the sts it will rattle against the exhaust.

 

I have a OBX short shifter as well. bending the heat sheild has always been a requirement when isnatlling a STS. The B&M is the only one that doesnt require it since the mounting point is changed with it.
i also agree that the OBX feels better then the B&M. I recently bought one, drove with it for two weeks and put the OBX back on. The design for the B&M is ridiculous. The OBX has a bearing that when mounted and tightend down still allows the shifter to move but doesnt cause any extra play. The B&M uses washers and nylon bushings which in time to began to have play in it which I hated.
Now as far as the negative comments, I dont take any of them back. This is the same guy that created a thread asking how to remove his taillights. If he would simply take time to view how things are put together he would easily figure things out. He asks questons on the most basic things. To install tails all one needs to do is pull back the trunk liner and Viola, you can see the studs with the nuts on them, but fior him its easier to be spoon fed everything.
Same with th shifter. If he had concern about it, simply schedule time to jack it up and look under. No biggie. Instead he would rather create a thread and cry to the org and ask what s wrong. I understand having a busy schedule, but are his sports really that important to where he couldnt miss or day or be a little in order to figure out whats wrong with his car? I mean it does appear to be his daily driver so I would assume its reliability
would be more important then his extracurricular activities.

 

ORG DRAMA. noes.

Did you take the boot off to see if the rod itself just got bent? Don't know how that would explain your weird 1st/2nd issue though.

 

This is one reason I like my auto..........

 

Hey maxima98, sorry to be off topic, but how is it that you have a '95/'96 grill with a '97-'99 bumper? I thought that caused two gaps. From your picture, yours looks great.

 

His does have two gaps, hard to see because its black. I do have a95-96 grill on my 97-99 bumper. I had a body shop extend the ends to make it fit and then they painted it.

 

there are gaps, from a couple feet away it looks really good and better than the 97 grille. that picture is my old maxima

 

Agreed, I have always liked the 95-96 grill over the 97-99. The bar in the middle just ruined it for me.

 

Might I just add this....I was simply just asking if anyone had this happen to them AND if it was still driveable. I was not asking to be spoon fed and given a detailed writeup on what to do. I was not the one who installed the shifter, Kevin did it when he did my exhaust install for me and I called him before I even posted this thread and set up a day to fix it.

And about the taillight thread....I was a member for less than a month and was still new with the whole Maxima scene. I apologize for asking stupid questions like such.

Also, sports do come before my car, and I do not think I should have had an issue posting this thread.

 

Really? Hmm, the first thread you ever created was on 01-24-2007, and the thread you created about the tails was on 04-05-2007. Seems a bit more then a month but o well.


And that is why you will always have to rely on others to do the simple things to your car.
What I dont get, is you get upset when someone calls you out yet you flame others any chance you get.
i also like how you try to offer advice about things you really dont know much about.
Oh, btw the "What exactly is gear oil?" was classic.
But whatever, I wish you the best in Maxima upgrading future Im sure you will need it.

 

10 char

 

Oh well thanks for being my stalker......


Just an FYI, this is my first car and 6 months ago, I didn't know ANYTHING about a car's mechanical components. It has been a learning process for me so far. You need to realize that everyone needs to learn things at somepoint. The reason why I flame people is when they post things in the wrong categories. Even then I redirect them. Most people new to the car scene who ask simple questions I answer, only because someone on this board was nice enough to do so to me.

Also, I plan to do more mods myself in the future. I just have not had the time or desire to learn and install a header, y pipe, sts, and O2 simulator. I know it is easy work and I should be doing it myself, but I do not have a shop with tools accessable. IMO its easier for me to pay someone who I can trust to do it and not have to worry about it.

Im done. Mods feel free to lock.

 

I understand and agree we all start somewhere, but if this is the fact why do you offer advice on things you dont really know about?
Because someone else stated it? You shouldnt speak unless its from experience.


I already realize this, and this was the point I was stressing to you, and the only way to really learn is by experience.
The funny thing is, this happened to me as well (2004). I never mentioned it before because of the fact that you put no real effort into identifyng the problem on your own.
http://forums.maxima.org/showthread....hlight=shifter
If you read that thread you will see that I didnt immediately post up and ask "whats wrong". I made time to work on the car where it sat before I went to work.

The reality is if you dont really have the time or desire to learn and do the things your self, at least the minor things you probably shouldnt mod. Once you do begin to, those mods always effect other things and so begins the whole process repair,replace and upgrade.

 

Right now I do not have the time or desire to learn how to do stuff like this. I am beginning to become more encouraged to do things on my own but it is still a learning process. When I get more free time in the next couple of months, I look to install a MEVI and do a 120K mile service on my car. At least by doing this I can gain some of the basic knowledge of cars in general. I may not speak from experience, but 99% of the time, my advise is given from information I have read, and I stand by what I say. Sorry to come off as a spoon-fed one, but I am still learning.

 

Drama on the .ORG ... I've been away from my puter for a while (like torture!) and these are the kinds of posts now ??? WTF mates!

When I installed my STS, I had to use a longer bolt and also bend the heat shield out of the way of the rod. Otherwise it'll rub and be anoying as can be.

As for your ? on drivability - as long as the trans goes in gear and doesn't pop out ... should be fine. I couldn't live with my shift points being THAT far apart - but to each their own. A lot of us replace the shifter bushing when doing a STS, was your's replaced? If not, I don't think that would make your shift points be that far off so I would suspect the linkage somehow maybe got bent. The bushing will help provide smoother shifts and less play in gear - somethin to look into I guess.

Cheers ... hope ya figure it out.

p.s. ... doesn't matter if you do it your self or pay another to do it as long as it's done right but in this case it may not have been done properly, really hard to say without getting under both the boot and the heat shield to look at things more closely

 

You are the man Flava! That is sooooo way cool. Nice job. I give you an A++++ for creativity. To be honest, I've actually thought about doing that but you did it first so you get all the credit. Good job. Like you, I like the '97 bumper but not the '97 grill. I changed my plans and just decided to go with the Sorona grill (the one with the 360^ border). But, just like everything else, it's been sitting in my garage for years.


Maxima98 and Flava =