hogboy36

I know you guys have gone over this a thousand times, but my bushings went out on my shifter and i would like to go ahead and put a short shifter in my car(93 N/A). Where can i get a quality product for the money? Thanks. Rodney T.

b300z

go to tt.net and ask silver twin or woody75(denver)

or buy one from amz
http://www.amzperformance.com/z32/?p...53ee30c981978&

or buy one from stillen
http://www.stillen.com/search_detail...&source=Search

WhtFairLadyZ

AS far as i am concerned all of them are pretty much the same..goin with a major company like stillen ( aka STEALIN) will cost u for their name. All short throws i have scene are the same for the Z32. I have the TOP SPEED unit in my car.

91zxtt

Courtesy Parts also sells them. That's where I bouth mine. It was much less than Stillen for the same part.

Don't buy from eBay.

KENZ

im getting mine from amz...

CanyonCarver

I'm not getting one. I believe they contribute to shortening the life of your syncros.........

DanZ32

I have heard good things about Silvertwin (Ohio) 's short shifter. Like B said, you can get ahold of him on twinturbo.net and you can get ahold of him on Zcar.com

LUKassZ

I'm sportin an AMZ short throw...I like it!

91zxtt

How? Please explain.

CanyonCarver

IMHO, It's a timing issue. when you disengage the clutch, all of the gears/syncos etc are turning at a given speed. When you go to change gears, that next gear set on the output side needs to slow down or speed up to match the speed of the gear set on the input side. The syncros, made of bronze, assist in the alignment of the next gear set to be engaged. The timing that comes into play is the length of the throw of the shifter. Within the given (by nissan) length of throw/time, is the closest approximation of time, that it takes for the gears to come up to the same speed for engagement.

In my experience with shortening the throw of the shifter, if you want smooth shifts, you'll install the short throw shifter and then end up waiting (maybe miliseconds) for the next gear to engage as you shift. That is if you don't force your shifts. If you end up trying to shift the same speed as before you installed the short throw shifter, you'll find that the gears start to grind on engagement, which is your syncros wearing.

Your syncros will generally be one of the first things to wear out in your tranny. You only hasten that wear by changing things.

Sounds like a crock-o-$****, right?

hogboy36

Well, it's sounds very logical to me, Canyon.

91zxtt

Yep.

I don't think I'm going for the whole thing that Nissan designed the duration of the shift so that the gears can align, but that's just me.

I really have no idea though.

bardabe

Stock is short enough for me I'll stay safe and leave the OEM one. or shall I take my chances?

waterdogzx

I got mine from ebay for $40. They are all the same part whether you buy the $40 MK1 shifter or the $180 Stillen short shifter--it's the same part from the same manufacturer. Each retailer just sells it as their own.

I've had mine installed for about 1500 miles and no problems. No grinding, no missed shifts, no wearing synchros that I know of.

Just nice, short, notchy, clean shifts. For sheer drivability of the car, I wish I had done this mod first.

My driving style is pretty laid back most of the time. I enjoy running curvy roads fast and having the precision shifts when I need them. I don't drag accelerate often where I'm running through the gears fast all the time.

If you're a Mustang-hater who drag races at EVERY single stop light, then maybe a short shifter is a risk to your synchros, I don't know.

>>If you do it, go buy new shifter bushings from Nissan. Don't use the crappy nylon bushings that come with the kit.

bardabe

I AGREE!!!!! sorry for hijackign back to subject. uhm no I don;t drag race every light. btu i do rool-on racing aka ****-yang. racing ex: "40-140 roll on yada yada." but uhm I'm getting short shifter I'll endup following 91's advice and get the one from courtesy parts. I I trust them. i can't go complaining to ebay for damaged sycros from a no name short shifter.

91zxtt

From what I've heard and read, actually they're not. The eBay ones are cheap knockoffs, just likely the 'Oakley's' you can buy in Mexico for $20.

waterdogzx

Ok, I've seen the $40 ones and the $180 ones and I couldn't tell the difference. They were the same part in the same box. One had a Stillen sticker in the box and one did not.

I'm not going to argue about it though--maybe I saw 2 cheap ones, or 2 expensive ones, instead of one of each.

I'm no expert, but I do know one thing about installing a short shifter: Go spend $3 on replacement bushings from Nissan and don't use the crappy nylon bushings included in the kit! It makes all the difference in the noise that everybody talks about after doing this mod.

bardabe

word

1SIKZ

Dude. Your not the first person i heard that from and it makes sense. I was talking to a bunch of toolmakers at my work and a couple of them said the exact same thing. Its ideal for racing but if you plan to use the car as a daily driver then its not a smart move. They apparently wear your Syncros faster.

Anyone with sort shifter notice any grinding at all?? even a little?

ZLover4Life

hello old thread....

Talk to a transmission expert if you want the truth, not a toolmaker... what do a bunch of toolmakers know about the mechanics of a transmission? ****, most mechanics don't know anything about transmissions.

The purpose of a synco is to speed up the gears to the proper speed to allow smooth shifts... they do not require an exact set time to reach their speed. No company can effectively say that every person who owns the car is going to shift at the same speed.... that's absoutely rediculous. It might take me .3 seconds to shift gears and it might take a 60 year old man .8 seconds to shift the same gear.... Nissan doesn't expect us to shift at the same speed and therefore you can assume that shortening the shift will make no real difference in syncro wear. That's like saying you're supposed to shift a sportscar the same way you shift a manual Neon just because they use the same syncro technology; or like saying you can't power shift your car because if you don't allow time between gears you'll damage your syncros.

I've had a short shifter in my car for about a year now... no more grinding than usual, no syncro noise, and no problems.

1SIKZ

Well thats exactly why im writing into this forum, I want to know who has a short shift kit and if there were any problems. By the way what type of short shifter did you get or where did you buy it for that matter? How do you like it compared to the stock setup? thanks for your reply

CanyonCarver

LOL....... It's funny that you mention your toolmaker friends since I've been in that same trade / career for 27 years now.

It's really a matter of opinion and personal choice. You can listen to the kid that's had his high $ short shifter for a year now. Or maybe to other people that have a little more mechanical experience and knowledge. The short shifter isn't gonna kill your tranny tomorrow.

Again, here's something to keep in mind from an engineering standpoint. The shifter isn't just a stick sticking up into your cockpit. It is one component of a finely engineered system designed to work a certain way. ie: the transmission. The nissan engineers, in all of their finite wisdom, didn't just make that stick an arbitrary length. And, fwiw, before the high $ super-duper short shifters ever came to market, I had shortened a couple of shifters myself, with custom by me shift *****, and subsequently messed up syncros in trannys. But then, I don't drive around like a grandma, babying my cars either.

ZLover4Life

ebay. I've seen the Stillen ones and, while it's obvious they aren't the "same" I definately feel that the $30 eBay one was just as solid as the more expensive ones.

I love it compared to stock. I always loved the feel of the stock shifter, and then I drove a Z that actually had a short shifter and I loved it, so I decided to get one. I have no regrets thus far.

and CanyonCarver, I understand what you mean about the Nissan engineers doing everything for a purpose, and I entirely agree... but I think their purpose for the stock throw of the shifter was more for comfort and control than for a mechanical purpose (other than just shifting gears I mean). (just my $0.02 on that)

KevinH

I recently put a B&M - Nismo short shifter in my '90 NA 2+2. I talked with several people about short shifters in their Z's online, then talked with a guy in my club that has one. The guy in my Z-club told me that it would take about 600 miles before the short shifter gets broken in. My is stiff, though is slowly shifting smoother and smoother the more I drive it. I love it! It is a pain (to say the least) to install, but worth it. I bought my B&M - Nismo short shifter off of Ebay for $55.00 plus $15.00 shipping. The B&M is 304 stainless steel, which I thought would be a better way to go as opposed to the 6061-T6 aluminum (Ebay for about $30.00). When I removed the stock shifter, it appears to be aluminum, so I guess it really wouldn't matter. I bought my car to have fun with. I don't like cutting corners, but I certainly am not a 'brand name dropper'. I could care less if its got a big name tied to the product as long as the product does the job that it was designed to do. If you love to drop big names in your conversations, i.e. my car has 'so-n-so' .... in it. Then buy stickers - they're a heck of allot cheaper!

waterdogzx

If the bit about the synchros, timing and premature wear is true, then it all comes down to how you drive. If you're drag racing Camrys and Explorers at EVERY stop light, dumping the clutch and cramming the gears, then you're going to have tranny problems with a short throw shifter, just like you would with the stock one.

I look at it like this: I shift normal/slow about 85% of the time. But I like having the short shifter there when I need it.