Got my shifter in the mail today (thanks APlus), couldn't wait to install it:
open her up, looks all good. proceed out to my car. Take apart my console, and here's what I see:
Looks like a job for Mr. 13mm Socket...Hey! where'd that daggone shifter go?
Oh there she is, you silly shifter you!
What does Uncle Corey always say? Safety First!!!
Now to the fun stuff. First step was to grind off the end of the shoulder pin, so it could be slid out and allow the spring assembly to be removed.
Then I drilled and punched the rivets out that were holding the plastic housing to the metal base. The duct tape was to hold it all together after the rivets were gone.
Leaves you with a very bare shifter base
Next we grind off the end of the bottom pivot on the stock shifter so we can re-use the plastic ballcup (I made that name up myself)(the round end below the 'W' is what was ground off.
Now we mark off the top of the shifter base and let the sparks fly. Make sure you have yourself a good grinder/dremel. They say to take off 5mm of material, which is fine on the two sides, but the front/back close to the mounting holes you want to take off as much as you can, I'd say at least 7-8mm. I dont have a picture to describe it, but when the shifter moves front to back, the ends of the pin holding the pivot to the shifter arm, come extremely close to the shifter base but doesn't touch. I lucked out and had just enough room. Probably why ppl complained of not being able to shift into certain gears, didn't remove enough material and the shifter would hit.
Here she is all cut and waiting for the shifter to be inserted
Here's the shifter assembled and ready to be attached to the base again. You can see in this pic, the rightmost blue piece has a pin/bolt running through it connecting it to the shifting arm. The two ends of that are what come extremely close to the shifter base if not enough is cut away. Make sure to give yourself enough clearance and you'll be happy.
Thats all the pics I was able to take today, as I had to work at night and didn't quite make it on time as it was. Car > Best Buy. I'll post up some more pics tomorrow, of it all bolted together and installed back into the car. I must say there was much more work involved than I thought, but nothing the simple mechanic can't handle.
I also must say how awesome it feels to drive now. Every shift it so precise, it goes in and thats that, no fighting or sloppy shifting. First time I put it into first, didn't feel like it was going far enough, but low and behold it was in gear. Great mod, everyone do it!
i was thinking about doing this on my 98, but have a few questions.
do you have to cut or extend any cables or anything like that? or drill new holes so the new shifter will fit correctly?
i heard a lot of horrible things you had to do to get it to work, but i dont know for sure...
- Cameron (CaliforniaCavalier)
-
www.csc-motorsports.com (my new NOR-CAL car tuning site)
only thing that needs to be cut is the shifter base, you dont need to extend cables at all, or drill any new holes. Its very hard to screw up...
what tools do you need to do this job? dont you need a rivet gun to put the rivets back in?
what other tools do u recommend?
- Cameron (CaliforniaCavalier)
-
www.csc-motorsports.com (my new NOR-CAL car tuning site)
wow!!! ::claps:::.....nice it seems hard!!! but yet easy!!.........on they ebay postings they say oh 30 mins bolt right up!?!?! did you take 30 mins?? lol .......how much would you charge me if you did mines!!! lol....what would you say ......easy , moderate,hard,or gosh i hate this f**kin thing!!! lol...
Very nice. I just did mine a couple weeks ago and I love it. Very good writeup too. I just want to add one thing.
In the second pic down on the second post you will see a small black plastic clip inside the shift cable bracket. DO NOT break this clip!!! I did and w/o it you will not make it into 5th. It is there to keep the cable from wobbling and allows you to reach 5th. I went to get a new one from the dealer (No 3g Cav 5-spds in Junkyards around here) and it was freakin $7 for like an $0.89 clip AND its on backorder, been about a two weeks and still nuthin. So for now I put the pieces back in and glued them.
Very nice mod though. Highly Recommended.
CaliforniaCavalier wrote:what tools do you need to do this job? dont you need a rivet gun to put the rivets back in?
what other tools do u recommend?
You need a grinder/dremel with a cutoff wheel, drill with 9/32" bit I believe to drill out the rivets, a 8mm,10mm, and 13mm socket/wrench, no rivets are required as everything that was riveted together gets bolted together.
I'd rate it a medium on difficulty. Only tricky part is the grinding, as you dont want to damage any of the parts that are re-used, even though they give you an extra washer if you grind off too much of the material.
WoW!!!! That sucks you have to do that much work for the older 3rd gens. My 05 was a simple 10 minute install. No cutting, nothing got the shifter and it installed like a glove, also a B&M. But hey! Great work.
UPDATE:
here's the pics with it all installed...
these first two pics you can see the metal 'grommets' holding the shifter in place. They've got little ridges on the bottom that fit into the holes on the shifter base so they're not going anywhere, nor is the shifter
here's a top view of everything in place
you can see the lower pivot that replaced the old junk
just a view of it all
cables attached
console back together
feels awesome, shifts awesome, looks awesome. package deal I tell ya!
It doesn't look much shorter to me any idea on how much it actually shortens the height of the shifter... with that bend I can clearly
Se the throw reduction
I'm thinking about upgrading mine simply because the stock ball and socket is worn out. It's so loose in there it's like throwing a hot dog down a hallway. I have a 2001 though, I'm assuming it's a different process.
"In Oldskool we trust"
So is the 99 model short throws any different than the 02s
Yes, the trans is different, as is the shifter.
loved my B&M back when I had my 99' Z24. I felt like a million bucks when I installed this same shifter, and 1/4 mile times dropped steadily as well.
-SW
My other car is an interceptor.
So whats the install on a 2002
GMR has got nothing on this
Enjoy!