Shifter Options?

I just swapped to a S12 C trans and the shifter is way to high for my liking.  I had a 280z shifter on my old B trans...which was much shorter.

You can see in the below pic how much of the shifter boot I had to trim off for the shorter Z shifter.  About 1/2" of the bottom of the shift knob was tucked down in the boot.  Now I'm left riding high :laugh:



I don't necessarily need a short "throw" shifter....I just want a shorter shifter.  Can the original be cut down?  Or can I get one of the Ebay s13 shifter kits, and just swap out the shifter itself without using the kit? 

WELL!

I can tell you, that my ebay one has come apart in the past. The rubber bushing inside of the top piece lost a lot of its grip with the lower piece.

If you wanted to cut it down, an ebay one would do the trick. Just pull the two halves apart, cut down the lower, put some windo-weld in the bushing on the top piece, push her back on and enjoy the shorter one.

Thanks Jay!  Can the same thing be done with the OE shifter?

Dunno about stock... I don't see why you couldn't cut it down and weld it. I've done that countless times on other cars.

Anyone know if the stock C shifter comes apart as Jay described above?

the stock c shifter comes apart just like the picture that you posted minus those two c shaped metal pieces those aren't in there. Just do what i did on my C trans. Take the top piece where the threads are it should be M12x1.25 or something find out what the thread pitch is i can't remember exactly and cut it in half. take a die and rethread the shorter section to the same thread pitch and you will have a shorter shifter. you can buy the b&m short shifter for an s13 but that is 200 bucks so it's your choice. 200 bucks with no work or free and some work.

nismo_200sx on 11:43:46 AM / 08-Oct-12the stock c shifter comes apart just like the picture that you posted minus those two c shaped metal pieces those aren't in there. Just do what i did on my C trans. Take the top piece where the threads are it should be M12x1.25 or something find out what the thread pitch is i can't remember exactly and cut it in half. take a die and rethread the shorter section to the same thread pitch and you will have a shorter shifter. you can buy the b&m short shifter for an s13 but that is 200 bucks so it's your choice. 200 bucks with no work or free and some work.

Becareful with the one from Ebay lol I had the same shifter and while driving was fine whenever I raced with it it would never catch third I load slot of races that night beside of it and switched back to the stock shifter....

So the upper black part of the stock shifter pulls off?  Does it have a bushing inside it like the S13 shifters? 
Can i not just pull off the upper black portion off and cut a couple if inches off the bottom of it, then wedge it back down onto the shifter base?

Hmm. I'm doing my bell housing swap tomorrow so I'll let you chaps in on what I find out on this. That's if I can remember that I told you I'd look into it first.  Some days getting older sux!

8SixS12 on 08:22:17 PM / 08-Oct-12Hmm. I'm doing my bell housing swap tomorrow so I'll let you chaps in on what I find out on this. That's if I can remember that I told you I'd look into it first.  Some days getting older sux!

Yeah Keith we're close in age and location.  I'll be passing you on my way to Huntsville for Thanksgiving.   Anyway, I pulled off the top of my shifter and yes it does have sort of a rubberish isolator bushing material inside.  It's some really tuff junk to get off.  My plan is to clean up the lower half of the OEM shifter and thread it using a M14x2 die and use the top portion off a ebay s13 v1 short shifter that was on my SR trans.  The upper handle on the ebay shifter screws right off...well some genius put red loc tite on mine.  Hopefully, It'll work better than OEM although the shifts won't be any shorter the feel should be better since the EB shifter is weighted.  I also have a Circuit Sports bronze shifter bushing that I want to try out as well.  I'll try and add some pics later so Stay Tuned

Keith, Sterling has been using Ebay short-throw kits in his Mark II trannies for some time now. So have I. Honestly, the shift reduction is not only mild, but necessary. Think about this: when you shorten the *length* of the shift arm above the pivot, you give yourself less leverage. This will make the shifts *less* The reason short-throw shifters have a reduced height is to maintain the *ratio*. Trust me, it's minimal, and you will like the shift improvement. 99% of the ebay shifters are NOT crazy shift throw reductions. Also, one out of every few dozen has an issue I suppose. Sometimes the pivot is machined too small, other times there is a cheaper than useful plastic bushing on the shift lever (the bottom end).

But for the most part, it works fine. Just make sure to buy one with the machined lip on the billet aluminum riser piece. That's where the factory inner boot clips on with a c-clip. It's just a smallish rubber cap that sits at the very bottom of the upper shift arm.

Good point about the ratios Arro. I didn't take that into consideration. Well too late for me  I already took mine apart. We'll see how it all works out.

how does the shifter improve your shifting

faster more solid shifts, just takes more muscle

Sean_howell1 on 09:41:13 AM / 06-Nov-12faster more solid shifts, just takes more muscle

Update on the shifter....turns out that the lower portion of the factory lever is slightly smaller in diameter that the upper part of the ebay shifter so no go on the M14x2.0 die idea.  I found this out once I finally got enough of the rubber gunk off to mic it.  On the other hand , I thought about putting some rubber cement or RTV around the lever, slide the ebay top over it then let it cure to see if it would hold.  There was already some sort of hard rubber holding on the OEM top lever anyway so it might work.  I'm just unsure of what would be best to use for this.  Any ideas?

Here are a few pics to give you guys a visual:


Here is the ebay top lever on the OEM lower half.  Compared to the OEM top you can see that it reduces the height by just under 2 inches. Of course you could cut the OEM lower part to whatever height you want but I would imagine any lower would be beyond the realm of functionality.

jb weld

Yeah. I thought that too but would it be flexible enough to absorb vibrations from the trans?

I think the lower plastic bushing would take care of that. JB weld is pretty tough stuff in my experience

Yeah.  I've used it before that's why I asked because I remember that stuff getting pretty hard. It doesn't give much. The OEM shifter handle had a hard rubber surround holding it to the lever I'm assuming to absorb vibration.  But I guess JBweld would work. At the very least you know for damn sure it's not gonna come loose on you while shifting.

Ebay FTW

I agree Arro. I just don't dig the janky ass brackets that could potentially come loose.

They can't really come loose. Just because something is from Ebay doesn't mean it's an issue. They're just machined pieces. Like I said before, 99 times out of 100 it will be just fine.

No flexatall with JB. RTV may not be strong enough to hold, so JB is probably the best answer. Then you can wear a glove...

How about that black epoxy junk they use on windshields?

Keith on 11:45:22 PM / 17-Nov-12How about that black epoxy junk they use on windshields?

Yeah. You mean 3M window weld right? I was just looking at that at work yesterday. I'm gonna give it a try. It's string enough to hold and gives enough to absorb vibration.  I can do my transmission mount at the same time.

A far easier solution if you can find one is to get an R31 JDM Skyline shifter. Radicaly shorter and the throw is reduced as well. I had on in mine and it dropped in like stock. I would do this again in a heartbeat, best solution. Mine was like $15.00 on ebay. Remember that is one of the glorious things about this platform is parts interchangability! LOL!

It's been a long time. I've been busy with my build thread and haven't gotten around to the shifter yet.  I did however decide to go with using the 3M window weld.  I'll update when it's done and also give my thoughts on how it functions. 

Keith, what did you end up doing?

I just bought a new bushing from nissan.

Well worth the $7 IMO.

lol why did you quote him three times?

ok so i decided to try and use the s13 shifter, and well it fits, but doesnt quite work like it should, its clunky and hard to get into gears, i messed around with it for a while, the solution i came up with is that the actual pivot ball is smaller than the s12 one, i think, so what i was thinking of doing was getting a proper size washer to go between the snap ring and the washer of the plastic insert to eliminate play there, and another washer to go between the bigger snap ring and the plastic holder it self. is this a bad idea?

i like how the s12 shifter feels in weight, but the i like how the s13 has more of a tilt towards the rear of the car, im short so its more comfortable for me lol. wondering, if the washers work well enough, i might try to take the two shifters apart and use the s12 weight on the s13 shifter.

sideways_s12 on 10:22:09 PM / 24-Feb-13lol why did you quote him three times?

Haha ok I understand my phone does weird shit to when i post on tue site mostly misspellings and random periods...