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CHANGING TO A SHORT THROW SHIFTER

HOW HARD IS IT TO DO YOURSELF?

It's not hard. You can do this! The only potential stumbling block is when you have to disconnect the y-pipe and catalytic converter. If you haven't worked with your exhaust system yet, take a peek down there and look at the condition of your nuts and bolts (particularly the bolts connecting the y-pipe to the cat - see pic below). Disconnecting the y-pipe and the catalytic converter will be the toughest part. Air tools will help. If you can't seem to get those nuts off, don't be discouraged. Just go to your local muffler shop. They can remove/loosen/replace those rusted bolts and nuts for a small fee ($20 or so).

WHICH SHIFTER SHOULD I GET?

You have four choices: Stillen ($200+), Pacesetter ($150+), Courtesy Nissan ($95), and SMC ($150). Unlike the Courtesy Nissan shifter, the Pacesetter and SMC are adjustable, allowing you to control how short you can make the throw - thus, the higher price. The Stillen shifter is not adjustable, but it's not just the shifter either. It includes the rod that links the shifter to the tranny. From what I've heard so far, the folks with the Stillen unit are happy with their purchase. I have an SMC shifter, and its height is a lot lower than stock. Unlike Stillen's, it is only a shifter.

I originally had the Courtesy Nissan shifter installed. The throw is noticably shorter, but don't expect that you can now shift with a flick of the wrist. Although the ball joint is located higher, the height of the shifter is the same as stock, so if you want a lower look - avoid the Courtesy Nissan. Here's a pic. The Courtesy is the top peice. Notice that the ball is slightly higher up, but that the overall peice is as long if not longer than stock!

On the otherhand, it thankfully did not increase in stiffness - shifting is still pretty smooth. But notice that I said "originally" had the Courtesy. It has now long since been ripped out. To put it bluntly, the quality sucked:

About 2 months after I had my Courtesy Nissan shifter, the weld broke!
I cannot believe the disregard for quality that Courtesy has in this shifter.
It broke when I was driving! It's not as if I didn't try to make it work.
A. The shifter ball was oversized, so I shaved a little to make it fit.
B. The bolt was too short, so I bought a longer one that worked.
C. The threads where the knob went needed to be filed.
D. And now the weld broke?

At least I can say that the service at Courtesy Nissan's parts department is good. When I told them about my problems, they sent me an SMC shifter in its place.

There's the SMC kit to the left. Notice how much shorter it is. The plastic ball rides on threads so you can adjust the height. The ball is then held in place with an allen screw. But wait, there's more! Look how much more complete the SMC kit is. It actually came with installation instructions! And a warranty card....And a bag of goodies containing an allen wrench to let you adjust the ball height and a small packet of grease to put on the ball. It even has a new rubber dust boot to go around the pivot ball. It was this attention to detail that makes me recommend the SMC shifter.

A FINAL NOTE

I realize that I could have gotten some "bad luck" with the Courtesy shifter, but my confidence in Courtesy Nissan products has been badly shaken.

But to not end on a bad note, let me say that I thoroughly enjoy having a short throw shifter. Having now gone back and forth from stock to short, I can honestly say that I think my stock shifter makes me feel like I'm rowing a boat. If you have a five speed, I highly recommend this mod. Any of these shifters can be purchased through Courtesy Nissan.

WHAT SPECIAL TOOLS WILL I NEED?

A rubber mallet - to dent the heat shield
A Dremel - to help make things fit.
A vise grip wrench
Some grease

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Before ripping out your old knob, see if you can disconnect the y-pipe from the catalytic converter. Get your car up on jack stands. I recommend removing one of the front wheels to allow easier access beneath the car.

2. Locate the y-pipe and catalytic converter connection shown below. The yellow arrows point to the nuts you need to remove. The green arrows point to a metal bracket you can easily remove if its getting in your way when tackling the left nut.

Once you get the two nuts off, you'll notice a metal bracket that is held by rubber supports to the chassis. This bracket helps support the weight of the exhaust system. You'll have to remove at least one of these bolts attaching the rubber supports to the chassis. This will give you some room to disconnect the y-pipe. Each bolt is relatively long, but easy to remove. When you separate the y-pipe, be careful, especially if you still got the stock y-pipe. It has a pretty long flex section that will droop all the way to the floor. So watch your head! Hold on to the metal gasket if it pops out.

3. If you can separate the y-pipe and cat, you've done the tough part. If it came out easily, terrific! The rest of the procedure should be simpler.

4. Get back in the car, taking care since you are on jack stands. Using a vise-grip wrench, twist off the knob. If you're planning on keeping the old knob, wrap it with a rag or something. Otherwise, you'll tear the leather off the old knob.

5. Next grab the panel section around your shift boot and give it a tug. It will pop out. Watch for any metal fasteners that pop out and put them back if needed.

6. Watch out for the wire connecting power to the 12V plug. Disconnect it (yellow arrow). Pull out a plastic peice that rests on the shifter and hold on to it for later (red arrow).

7. Time to get back under the car and remove the heatshield. Check if an O2 sensor wire is attached

Remove the bottom cat heatshield (green arrow) - to give yourself some room around the cat. It's held by four bolts.

The cat's top heatshield (orange arrow) may be supporting the cat's O2 sensor by a plastic zip tie. You'll need to cut it free (red arrow)- be careful not to cut the sensor wire.

Once the O2 sensor wire is free, remove the cat's top heatshield (it's held by 5 bolts - the blue arrow shows one of them).

8. With the top heatshield removed, you should now be able to access the bottom assembly of the shifter.

Disconnect the shifter from the control rod by removing the bolt (green arrow).
Disconnect the spring from the control rod at the orange arrow.
Remove the nuts indicated by the blue arrows. (You'll see why later).
Remove the nuts indicated by the red arrows. Careful, this will bring the whole assembly down.

9. This is how it will look now.

Pull up the bracket (1) off of the assembly as shown. It will expose the bearing (2) that holds the shifter ball. The bearing is actually made of plastic. Peel off the bearing - you'll find that it is simply sticking to the shifter by the grease. It's actually "C" shaped, but the ends are together so it looks "O" shaped.

Wiggle the dust boot (3) so it comes down through the hole.

With the dust boot through the hole, you can now pull the shifter down through the hole. The hole is elliptical shaped. To get the shifter through the hole, you have to rotate the entire shifter by 90 degrees so it'll fit.

10. Pull off the dust boot from the old shifter and put it on the new one. (The rubber dust boot is flexible enough that you can pull it through the shifter ball.)

11. Grease up the shifter ball and insert the new shifter in the assembly. (I had trouble making mine fit - I had to use the Dremel to shave off just a little bit off the ball so that the ball can fit through). With the shifter ball through, push the dust boot up through the hole like it was before.

12. With the new shifter in, grease up the inside of the bearing. Then wrap it around the new shifter ball.

13. For this step, I'll be referring to the picture in step 8.

Raise up the assembly and reattach to the car chassis by using the nuts (red arrows).
Tighten up the nuts with the blue arrows.
Insert the bolt and tighten the nut with the green arrow.
Reattach the spring.
Get back in the car and test out the shifter in all gears.
If its too stiff, you may have tightened up the nut with the green arrow too much.
Loosen it a little bit and try again.

14. Hooray! You've now got a short shifter! Time to put things back.
You now got to bang the heat shield. You're denting it so that the new shifter (which sits lower) won't bang on the cat's top heat shield. Put the heat shield back without screwing it in. Locate the low spots and dent those areas with the rubber mallet. Here's mine....

Try to keep the overall shape the same. Step on the extensions where the screw holes are with your feet as you bang away. You don't want to end up with a flat pancake.

With the shield dented, put it back in place and bolt it in. Get in the car and tap down on your shifter (ie pretend the shifter is a nail and use your rubber mallet - Remember I said tap - don't be swinging away like Hercules). If you hear clanging noises, you need to do some more banging on the heat shield. (NOTE: If you have the SMC and set it to shortest possible, you may actually have to cut a hole in the heat shield to make it fit - see the SMC's instructions to do this).

15. With the heat shield in place, reconnect the y-pipe to the cat. Don't forget the metal gasket.

16. Reconnect the wire to the 12V plug on the shifter panel.
Put the plastic cylinder peice that you removed (red arrow step 6) on the new shifter.
Reinstall your shifter panel and boot by snapping it back in place.
Put on that aftermarket shift knob you've been wanting all this time (hehe) -as per its instructions.

17. Turn the engine on and watch for exhaust leaks.

18. Put any wheels back on and lower your car....That's it! Happy shifting!!

Last Note: Thanks to Cheston Chui and his site www.maximadriver.com for giving me pointers on this install - because Courtesy did not provide any directions as to how to install a shifter.

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