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Short-Throw Shifter
by Mr.T

DISCLAIMER: I'm writing this to help you guys attempt to install a short-throw shifter. I'm not garunteeing that your not a dumbass, and you probibly are. If your a dumbass, and you know who you are, dont attempt this.

Ok now that we have 75% of the people reading this categorized, lets begin.

STEP ONE

Take off your shifter nob, it simply unscrews. Pull your saftey break as high as you can, with as much strength as u can muster. Pull off the interior piece that surrounds the shifter, it should just snap off. It may require a little wiggling but you can do it. Disconnect the light from the back of your change tray and disconnect the wire from your cig lighter.
You should see a peice of insulation surrounding the shifter, remove that.
Take a fine-cutting metal saw and cut a reasonible amount off from the rubber thing on the bar just below the threads. I left an inch on from the top, then cut a midsection of 3'' out. This process is the hardest.

STEP TWO

Now that your cutting done, take your peice of the bar that has the threads on it, and drill a hole through it, about the diameter of a nail. Do the same for the base shifter bar (this is very difficult to do, but you must drill a hole through it while your in your car, you cant' remove the base bar)
Look around and try to find a pipe that will act as a perfect sleeve over the bar's diameter, i believe the bar is about 1/2 inch in diameter but i may be wrong. Once you find a pipe that fits and makes a perfect sleeve, drill holes that will correspond with the holes you drilled in your two new halves of your shifter rods (so that the hoels line up). Take a small bolt, a nut, and a washer, and line the sleeve's hole up with the hole on your bar, then shove it through... apply the nut.. etc..

STEP THREE

Now, take what you have just created, and slide it back onto the base rod that you drilled through, line up the holes in the sleeves and the holes in the base rod, shove it through, apply the nut...etc.. (sounds like a porno ).

There you go, your short throw shifter has been created, as far as making a new leather boot goes, i'm not sure because i havnt gotten that far yet, how good are you with sewing? hehe..

CONCLUSION

Yes i know my steps sucked but, hey, its a write up right? your shifter may be a little wobbly but its life. deal with it.

T

Very average. Why can't you remove the lower piece of shifter?? A better way is to cut down the shifter to your wanted height weld together and grind smooth again then slide sleeve over the shifter and spot weld 2 or 4 points on both top and bottom. The shifter wont wobble and will look much more professional. Took me all of 30min after sourcing the sleeve. This goes for any car with a straight shifter, bend can be a little more adventages.

Ok article, but more depth would be better and pics even better still!

I agree, welding is much better and won't make it wobbly.
A sleeve welded over the top is good idea too, just in case the top section snaps off mid-throw!

Problem could be welding INSIDE the car though....

urmmmmm i just read this article for the first time....

The idea of a short-throw shifter is that the length between gears is SHORTENED i.e 1st to 2nd, This saves time and leaves less room for mistakes..... How in shortening the legnth of the 'stick' does this shorten the throw?

IMHO, its not so much the shortening of the shifter length but altering the leverage point so that a shorter movement above the pivot equates to longer travel below. This is probably accompanied by a slight increase in shift effort. I think this is how it achieved for the T56 anyway.

why no just piss off the bit you cut off and just taper the remaining?

the purpose of a short shifter is to hav less movement up, down, left and right. this sort-of accomplishes it but not very well. it would be a dodgey home job and not look or feel good at all.

professional short shifters generally keep the stick the same height so the driver doesnt have to reach for it n lean forward...

my advice is, go buy one ya cheapo!!

[/QUOTE]professional short shifters generally keep the stick the same height so the driver doesnt have to reach for it n lean forward...
[QUOTE]

This is not always the case. There are generally two types of short shift kits. One type shortens the length of the stick, which is meant to looks better, and it also means there is a shorter throw. In the more motorsport orientated shifters (ie. B&M manual race shifters, whorten the throw by raising the pivot point of the stick, so that the height can be left standard or even higher up to allow quick shifting and less time that the driver has his hand away from the steering wheel.

Next time the v8 supercars are on tv, watch it, and when they show an in car veiw looking at the driver, take note of how the gear level is set up, the pivot point has been rasied, so the throw to change gears is shorter.

Oh and you should really change your disclaimer, your post is on how to modify your shifter to a shorter throw, not how to install an aftermarket short throw shifter, they are two completely different things.

well some of you guys have the right idea, a short throw shifter is meant to shorten the throw and shorten the stance if u look at any short throw shifter thats made regardless if its from a cheap knock off company or someone like b&m they all sit shorter than stock but not by much and they may look like the stock shifter and the short throw shifter are equal. and the pivot point may be higher of lower depending on the application. but cutting the stock shifter down does nothin at all but make it look better if u don't cut it too short cause then it just looks un-practical, but u can make a short shifter for your car if u feel like cutting out the reasearching the best high for the car then cutting out the pivot point and measuring the percentage of distance u shortened casue too much will cause u too grind gears and slice and dice your tranny.