Hello All, I installed my B&M Short Throw Shifter this morning....the install went nice and smoothe.....the instructions were fairly good from B&M....they only left out a few little things. FOR starters I got a beef with MAZDA...had the moron that designed the center console put all 4 screws that hold the shifter boot on, on the TOP insted of two on top and two from the bottom, THEN you could have done the whole job without removing the console! but NOOOOOOOOOO....geeez....and the instructions never tell you about the two screws near the rear of the console....course you figure out pretty quick that something is still holding it down....all you need to do is run your seats up as far as they will go and you can get at the two rear screws.....other than that...it was a piece of cake....NOW....MANY people have ask how much shorter the shifter is...its EXACTLY 1 3/4 inches shorter than the stock shifter. but the feel of this is soooooooooooo much better....very percise, very clean feel to it. here is a pic of the stock shifter laying by the B&M. If you have ANY questions...just shoot away!

 

im gonna have to get myself one of those

 

its good to get some feedback on that item

 

As a mater of fact I do have a before and after...wish I had taken them from the same angle though....anyway...here is the BEFORE


and here is the AFTER

 

Was the entire install done from inside the car? How do you detach the old shifter from the tranny? Do you notice a difference in the distance of the throw? How does this shifter compare with other short throw shifter you may have used?

 

Hawkeye, no not all the install is done from inside...as you mentioned you must unhook the stock shifter from the shift rod and hook it back up to the new one....if you look under your car...and you still have the stock exhaust....there is a heat shield you will have to remove the four little screws from and slide back a little....then there is a single bolt that holds the shift rod to the bottom of the shifter...you remove that...and take the bushings out of the sides of the shifter rod....after removing the console, you remove a single internal snap ring from the top of the shifter and the entire thing pulls out the top. you remove the dust boot from the stock shifter and put it on the B&M....you use the o-ring grease that comes with the kit and you put the new shifter back in the housing....install the top O-ring...and install the internal snap ring...you crawl under your car again...and hook the shifter rod up by installing the two little bushings and then put the rod up, put the bolt through the hole and put the lock washer and nut on and tighten....you will find that you will need to dimple the heat shield a little since the shifter sticks down a little farther than the stock shifter did.....HOWEVER....seeing as how I was also installing the cat back exhaust at the same time....I didn't reinstall the heat shield seeing as how the secondary cat / resonator isn' there anymore...only a pipe. You ask if I notice a difference...DEFINITALLY!!!! there is a LOT of difference in the distance of the throw....I have used other short throw shifters before....custom made for other applications...and this one measures up very nicely....I would highly recommend it to anyone. BTW...the instructions that came with it from B&M are very good, nearly complete...with the exceptions i mentioned in the first post....and in most cases uses a Protege in the pictures in the instructions.

 

i was wondering how much you paid for your short shifter and where you ordered it from, and wondering if you have any comments about the bosal exhaust? timmya

 

i'M CURIOUS ABOUT THE EXHuasT ALSO

 

Timmya and Ry, the shifter was $140 US and I got it from Protege5Online.com from Mitch, as well as my Injen CAI and the Bosal Cat-back Exhaust.....

if you will go over the the Engine/Drivetrain section of the board you will find a post there I did on the Bosal Exhaust Install....it answers the questions you ask and likely more. :{D

the main comment I have about the exhaust....its high quality....I love the sound it has....and it was an easy install.

 

Sweet, so it doesn't sound like a pissed off bumble bee!!

 

Ry, no it doesn't...its got a really nice low throaty growl to it....I LOVE IT.

 

Sir Nuke, glad you like the shifter. Thanks for the pics & positive comments. Thought I would throw out to everyone that I do have a sale on the B&M shifters right now. Its 141.00 shipped in the US with MO payment. E-mail me if you are interested. They should be shipping just after the first of the month.

 

Does the B&M shifter have positive stops or does it over engage like the stock shifter?

 

if you look at the picture in the very first post you will see EVERYTHING you get in the kit.....the B&M shifter is actually installed into the same housing that the stocker comes out of....you are in reality only replacing the shifter itself and its balljoints bushings. nothing more. you can see that the TOP of the shifter is 1 3/4 inches shorter than stock...and the BOTTOM half is about 1 1 /4 inches longer....this is how the shorter shifting distance is accomplished...its all geometry folks, plain and simple. so I guess to answer your question...you do NOT install any stops but I tell ya....this makes your shifting so much smoother and percise....it feels great!

 

I had a friend here in town that used one of those same short shifters and it seemed not to shorton the throw what so ever so I figured what the hell, You know that silver piece at the top of the stock shifter? well I broke out the vice grips and ripped that SOB Off Works GREAT and the throw is just about the same as the BM, Topped it off with a Yel. MoMo Shifter and I'm good to go. Turns out from what I have herd is that is the only differance in the shifters on the MP3 and the MP5 the Mp3 they just didn't add the Extention... so to say....