Shifter Modification

[Bullhead]

As some of you know or are getting to know me, I am a big DIY and I fab a lot of my own parts when I can having a machine shop at my disposal. I have seen the cheaper ebay shifters and have been informed on the z3 short shifter install. When you look between the stock unit and the short shift variations you see all that's been done is the length of the bottom lever has been lengthened between the center pivot point (the ball) and the bottom final leverage input. I am going to take my stock shifter and cut the bottom section into and then weld in a 10mm piece of t6 round bar stock and see what happens. Does anyone know the length difference between the stock unit and the good aftermarket units? and I am just referring to the bottom lever section past the ball. I would like to know the measurement from the center of the ball to the center of the sleeve that the shifter arm goes into if anyone has them laying around. And in the future if this works out well I will offer this service to all if it helps the community. Because I have noticed these stock units feel like a hardened aluminum and the cheaper ebay units are chromed steel. I will have to confirm this the stock one's could be chrome moly and the weight is fooling me I haven't looked closely yet. As always your input is welcome.
P.S.I may start making custom clocks for the dash where the obc is and I may make some nice t6 aluminum handles with a tungsten core, so they would be weighted. But only if there is interest, and I will get some prototypes up.

[LJ851]

I've been doing this to bmw shifters for more than 20 years. Shorter tops, longer bottoms, angled towards driver, one piece steel (no rubber).... The bottom half of a modern bmw shifter is steel. Bmw does not sell the composite bushing in the bottom of the shifter and i have not tried to weld one with a plastic pivot ball because i haven't needed to, you will need to fab bushings as well as welding usually does them in.

[Poorboyz]

Def would like to see some of your work.

[Bullhead]

I fiddled with some ideas at work today, nothing solid right now but I have some ideas. I will throw pics up if I get something I like, and btw all the metals in my shop are American, we do not have any Chinese metal.

[AndrewBird]

You might find this helpful:

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=72458

[Bullhead]

You might find this helpful:

http://www.mye28.com/viewtopic.php?t=72458

Outstanding sir!!! that is just what I needed, this will further my progress. I will actually cut into my stock shifter tomorrow. I am also working on the shifter knob, which is going to be a pistol grip design, but will be smooth.

[Bullhead]

I am also going to reinforce the selector rod, but not by much as this should be able to bend if something goes wrong so you don't stick the shift forks (like the guy who sold me my car did) lol.

[Northern]

Not sure how long you are planning on extending the lower leg of the shifter, but if you go too long, you will hit the vibration damper on the driveshaft.

Some people will bend the selector rod to clear, but I feel that something like the blue piece of the cheap ebay kits would work better.

It attaches onto the shift carrier with a circlip, and raises the pivot point to prevent interference below.

[Regnar75]

...but if you go too long, you will hit the vibration damper on the driveshaft.

people still have the vibration damper on?

[Ether-D]

His is an early car, I think it has no vibe-damp.

[Bullhead]

No vibe damp, but I am only going to add 3/8" to the rod to make it 1/2" longer total between the ball and the lower pivot joint. Right now the distance is an 1/8" so this should improve it dramatically without being really long. Also LJ you were dead on, the bottom section of the shifter is steel, and they have used aluminum for the upper portion attaching it with a stress type lock down. If everything goes well I will swing it by Kadunza and let RobertK look it over and then I may offer this service on here with the reinforced selector rod as well. This would let you keep factory BMW parts but they would be a performance part. I like doing this because the OEM usually makes a quality part. Sometimes it gets hard to find that Z3 or goodness forbid an M3 at the pulla part so I think this may be desirable.

[Bullhead]

Not sure how long you are planning on extending the lower leg of the shifter, but if you go too long, you will hit the vibration damper on the driveshaft.

Some people will bend the selector rod to clear, but I feel that something like the blue piece of the cheap ebay kits would work better.

It attaches onto the shift carrier with a circlip, and raises the pivot point to prevent interference below.

Good info, I do and do not like this shifter, let me explain. I like how it brings the actual pivot point up to keep interference at bay but I do not like how it is in fact a 2 collar design. With this shifter you would have the shifter carrier (which is a cast piece) then this would fit into the carrier, and then you would have the new shifter itself which would fit into the blue carrier in the shifter. I think over time you could wallow the factory carrier out or make it out of round, but that's just my 2 cents from experience with metal.

[Ether-D]

LJ you were dead on, the bottom section of the shifter is steel, and they have used aluminum for the upper portion attaching it with a stress type lock down.

Yep, you can trust just about anything LJ says. He actually knows his shit.

And going from 1/8" to 1/2" seems like it may be a lot. I don't really have any actual experience. It seems to me like the forward to back throw will be greatly reduced, but the left to right might actually be increased. Am I coo coo?

[Bullhead]

Yep, you can trust just about anything LJ says. He actually knows his shit.

And going from 1/8" to 1/2" seems like it may be a lot. I don't really have any actual experience. It seems to me like the forward to back throw will be greatly reduced, but the left to right might actually be increased. Am I coo coo?

You are correct sir, but from my calculations it will still be less than the Z3 M shifter would be, and just to be more specific I am going for 1/2" total I am only adding 3/8" of an inch, think I may have coo coo'd on the earlier post lol.
Yeah I was coo coo, just looked over my notes again to make sure and I put add 1/2" in the post instead of 3/8" which is correct, lol glad I didn't go that far. I am actually going to just tack it up and test it there and I will make 3-4 inserts 1 shorter than the other 2 longer to see what feels best.

[LJ851]

Playing around with lengths is the best choice, find out what suits you best. I have a X5 shifter in my e30 currently and the bottom length is about as long as they come at over an inch but the interior height is even taller than stock e30.

The shifting effort is not very high but the throw is noticeably shorter than stock and my hand is closer to the steering wheel.

In my last e30 i made a shifter using an e21 lever (pretty tall) with about 1 1/4 inch bottom IIRC, pretty short throw but not too stubby in the interior. I liked that one.

You might want to remove the aluminum top and weld on a steel shaft to make a shifter with no rubber in it. They flex a lot stock.