Made my own short shifter yesterday, more so out of necessity than intent. When I purchased the car, the shifter knob was worn and wobbled, the bottom plastic piece where the boot attaches was broken so the boot would fall down. I replaced the stock knob with an aluminum shift knob from APC for $9.00. This thing uses a plastic cap that fits over the shifter, then the knob uses allen screws to attach to the plastic. Over time, the allen screws loosened up so it got woobly too. What I did was cut off the sealed side of the plastic adapter tube, so that it would slide over the shifter, I then pushed it down about 2 inches lower than where it would have previously sat. Then the shiftknob slipped over that and screwed down. Once reassembled, my shifter is now about an inch and a half, maybe 2 inches shorter than stock. Looks cooler, kinda like a Miata. Call it a stubby shifter. Shift throws are still stock length because I didn´t change the leverage. But it sits lower and looks better and now my knuckles don´t keep hitting the cd player. Thought I´d pass this along - anyone with an aftermarket kit that uses plastic end caps can try this and shorten the height of their shifter as well.
"Short" Shifter
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A short shifter just plays with the leverage distances. Really, you can think of the whole shifting system as a see-saw, where the fulcrum is just a ball pivot. The tranny is the fat kid on the other end, and no matter where you place the fulcrum, you will always have to do the same amount of WORK.Wally said:
Remember that work is the integral of force times distance, or for all practical matters, W = F * d
With this said, there is a linear, inverse relationship between force and distance, assuming that work remains constant. All a short shifter does is gives the illusion of less work by DECREASING the distance and thus INCREASING the force necessary for a shift. Either way, you're still doing the same amount of work.
The plus side of this is that you can do shifts more quickly, assuming you supply the oomph to get it from gear to gear, because the distance you travel is shorter.
With that said, I will comment on how honda has us owned on the shifting subject. Not only do they move the entire linkage UP into the passenger cabin, where is is not subjected to rust-inducing environments, but they've also got this killer linkage. I pulled one apart and took a pic when I was in the boneyard. I absolutely love the way that the hondas shift. It's so superior to our primitive escorts...
For true racing.. shortening the upper part of the lever is not what you want to do. I'm upset that the B&M shifter I purchased is about 3/4" lower than the stock one... now I have to stretch to shift. The closer the shift lever is to the steering wheel the better. Racecars don't have stubby shifters, they have whatever height shifter it takes to keep their hands off the wheel as short a time as possible. Fortunately my Mx3 seats will be in soon, so I can drop the steering wheel down slightly and hopefully the shifter won't be quite the stretch it is now. Can you touch the steering wheel and the shifter with the same hand at the same time? If so, that's a good thing. Stubby shifters belong on tall consoles [/rant]
Yeah, i can't see any advantage to shortening the knob side of the shifter in my car. 5th is already too far away and if the lever were any shorter i'd have to rub my chin with the steering wheel to reach it. The way i've eased/quickened shifting on my stock shifter is by using a heavier shift knob. That way the weight of the knob is giving more inertia to the lever.
I don't like having to slam the car into gear, and with the tight gates on the 97's shifter, i'd bee slamming it all over the place if i had a shorter lever.
I don't like having to slam the car into gear, and with the tight gates on the 97's shifter, i'd bee slamming it all over the place if i had a shorter lever.
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63 Posts
How did you cut the shifter?93EGTinLR said:
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