Shifter woes...any ideas?

[Pearldrummer7]

Hey all.

I have the stock shifter in my 818. It's....okay, but leaves room for improvement. There are a few paths to go down:

K tuned shifter
upgraded FFR shifter
MR2 shifter


The problem I have with any of these is giving up my tall shifter location (right near the steering wheel...it's so good!!). Anyone find a way to keep their shifter nice and tall while removing at least some of the awful slop in the stock shifter?

[Hindsight]

Sure. The MR2 shifter, and most any others, can be extended higher with a shifter extension rod. I bought one on eBay for like $12 for my MR2 setup. I don't personally want mine as high as you like yours, but you can buy something, or have something made to suite your preference. The extender is just a rod that has female threads on the bottom (like a shift knob) and then on the top, it has male threads so the shift rod can screw on to it. Various lengths are available. This way, the mounting height of your actual shift mechanism assembly doesn't have any relationship to your shift knob location. Of course, if you have a long extension, you'll need to adjust you bell cranks, linkages and other things to ensure the throws don't get too long but that's all very doable (you can see pics of how I'm doing it in my build thread).

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xmr2+shift er+extension.TRS0&_nkw=mr2+shifter+extension&_sacat=0

[xxguitarist]

Alternately, more of our approach- Turn the FFR/toyota shifter around, buy shorter cables, make bracket for cables.

[Buzz Skyline]

Alternately, more of our approach- Turn the FFR/toyota shifter around, buy shorter cables, make bracket for cables.

Wouldn't that flip the shift pattern too, or does the bracket you mention fix that?

[xxguitarist]

Check our build thread, but we attached the 1-2 direction to the shaft above the pivot point, and the left-right is on a bellcrank.

[Pearldrummer7]

All- just ordered an MR2 shifter. Found one for cheap and the guy shipping it today with "good bushings"...we'll see how true that part is.

As for what I'm doing for the bell-crank....no clue yet. Going to definitely buy or make a section of rod to extend the shifter up again (am I the only one who likes it high?)

[RM1SepEx]

the bushings don't matter, just a tight ball setup. I redrilled the attachments for the 14-28 rod ends anyways. The bell crank is pretty easy and I did mine with some simple mods of the existing FFR cable bracket. Get 7 foot cables, details in my thread and photos. Craig's setup is prettier but more $. I did mine in a few hrs with a band saw and drill press.

I chose to lift the entire shifter to get the ball higher, a longer shaft increases the distance of the shift throws

[brian b 36]

I have a up grade ffr shifter i will sell for 200

[Bob_n_Cincy]

At one point I was considering moving my MR2 shifter onto a 45 deg plate going up to the dash. This moved it close to the steering wheel and kept the short shifter feature.

something like this
http://thefactoryfiveforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=49947&d=1453406761

[Wayne Presley]

My shifter works very well
http://www.verycoolparts.com/shifter.htm

[RM1SepEx]

Bob, I think that the key is to have it as close to the same distance as the steering wheel at whatever height that you want. I moved my MR2 shifter up to keep it about even with the bottom of the steering wheel, just like my flock of Miata :rolleyes:

[Frank818]

K-Tuned shifter can go quite high if you adjust the rod at the highest level. Just like Wayne's shifter.