question for people who have tried the ebay short shifter

[atldohc]

well my z3 1.9l shifter snapped in half last week. atleast i believe thats the one it was. i dont remember since i installed it a few years ago. but i bought a z4 2.5l lever that im running now and im not too happy with it. i dont really like the oem lever design at all. the bottom part is an aluminum rod with the top part being a shell that wraps around the rubber insulation of the bottom rod. i can grab the two halfs and flex them in different directions. i know its probably there for vibration dampening, but id prefer a solid rod like the ebay shift levers. only problem is ive heard of people having trouble with the cup the ball sits in. so my question is for people who have tried using just the lever in the stock plastic cup that sits in the carrier. is the ball on the ebay levers the same size as on the oem levers?

for example one like this but throwing away the blue cup:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/84-85-86-87-88-89-90-91-BMW-E30-318-325-M3-QUICK-SHORT-THROW-SHIFTER-/151050175404?pt=Motors_Car_Truck_Parts_Accessories&hash=item232b4ac3ac&vxp=mtr

and a pic of my oem lever:

[XvillainousX]

I had the ebay one on my race car. It worked and served its purpose. I did not re-use the stock piece. It just fits inside the carrier.

I figured if it broke I'd be out only a few dollars and buy and OEM later.

[atldohc]

i actually already bought this and i installed it yesterday. i figured id share this here in case others are wondering about it too. there were some mods required to install this in my car, the biggest being cutting some of the lever out below the pivot ball and welding it back together, because it was too long and rubbing on my driveshaft. the second was sanding the sides of the white plastic pieces down where the selector rod joint goes through the bottom of the lever, because it was too wide and wouldnt have allowed the yellow plastic washers and metal retaining clip to fit on. i also bent it a little further back and towards the driver side. the pivot ball is the same size as oem levers, and it fit inside the oem plastic cup very snugly. oh and i also ground down the sides of the snap rings at the top and bottom of the pivot ball, as they extended past the ball and would hit the plastic cup when shifting. i didnt have to drill the hole in the bottom of the shift lever bigger to push in the selector rod end, but it was a tight fit and i had to use some pliers to squeeze it in. in the end im very happy with the result. shifting feels rock solid now compared to the oem levers ive used. the lever is steel and the extra weight seems to help the shifting. the extra vibrations are very minor and hardly noticeable to me compared to the oem rubber dampened levers.

[Northern]

If you used the raised cup it comes with, you wouldn't have had to shorten it, and the selector rod bushing fits without the washer, like the E53 shifter.

I found that the circlips hit each other until it is installed, at which point the shifter doesn't have enough range of motion to hit anymore. Although with the bottom being shortened, I could see it happening.

I've gone through two of these now. First one I lost the circlips, so I had nothing stopping the cup from coming out, and eventually the oem shift selector bitch clip fell off and I lost half the bushing. This time, I installed the thing properly, and it feels much better.

[atldohc]

yeah i figured that might be the reason the circlips hit the plastic cup. i didnt actually test it in the car so it may have still cleared. outside the car it looked like it would hit so i just ground the edges of the clips off. i have read of people having problems with the cup it comes with so i just chose to use the stock one. good info though i didnt know it was supposed to go washerless on the selector rod

[Northern]

I had 2 small problems with the cup. First was from not using the circlip underneath that holds it in place (easy to do with someone pushing the cup down in place from above, not so easy to do it alone without removing stuff) and second, I had to remove the lower o-ring on the cup because it prevented it from sitting in the shift carrier properly.

Once its in, it is great though. There was a member on MaXbimmer a few years ago selling these for ~$90, and everyone loved them. Someone noticed the ebay ones are the same, except $70 cheaper. That's when I decided to go for it.

[StereoInstaller1]

i actually already bought this and i installed it yesterday.

I just want the cup...still have the circlip? Wanna sell it?

[atldohc]

pmed

[Swanny]

Installed one in my brothers car about a month ago. Tightened up the shifting a TON. Had to improvise a solution for his blown rear carrier bushing but some hard urethane did the trick in a pinch. He still has a bit of play when in gear but you can find gears easier and it feels 100 times more secure when in. Also took out all the slop that was tearing his shift boot.

One gripe that I had is that it rotated his shift knob about 20 degrees clockwise so it looks a bit goofy when in neutral.

Not sure how this will play out long term but for the price you can't beat it.

[StereoInstaller1]

My M20 powered E34 has a G260, all stock.

I have 2 short shifters here, both Z3 1.9s, but there is no way it will clear the enormous guibo on the transmission. Even with the balancer gone, NFW.

Sure hope I can make this work, I prefer the vibration damping effect of the stock shifters, but I want a much shorter throw.