G'day Guys,
Just thought i'd give everyone a squiz at my latest addition to the Ralliart. I've made myself up a short shifter and took some pics along the way in case anyone is interested in attempting the same.

Makes an awesome improvement to the gear selection, so much more feel and precision to it, not to mention how much quicker you can select the next gear.

Anyway, here are a few pics.

Thats awesome mate :D If only i knew what to do and could weld lol

looks good!!
so how does it feel??
did you notice any crunching noise like others have felt??

kev

There is more force required to move the shifter as i've removed a fair bit of the mechanical advantage of the lever. You do feel more of the gears actually engaging but no crunch that i can tell.

Cool picks printed for my car mod file. Should give me some ideas for mine..........

Is that gear lever straight??

I had a look at my TF's gear stick when I was changing the gear stick boot, and it has a sort of zig-zag bend in it. This makes it sit too to the left and makes you hit the passangers knee each time you use 1st and 2nd. When in 5th it looks like 3rd in other cars!!! I hate it :cry:

i thought welds would make it structurally unsound, i wouldnt wanna throw it back into 4th and have it snap off in my hands

i reckon you should change the knob... that knob is huge! :)

i thought welds would make it structurally unsound, i wouldnt wanna throw it back into 4th and have it snap off in my hands
If the weld is done properly, you shouldnt beable to break a weld point!

Unless youre The Hulk..

then again the hulk could break anything :P

You should write a how-to guide.(with pix) I am sure alot of us are very interested.

Is that gear lever straight??

I had a look at my TF's gear stick when I was changing the gear stick boot, and it has a sort of zig-zag bend in it. This makes it sit too to the left and makes you hit the passangers knee each time you use 1st and 2nd. When in 5th it looks like 3rd in other cars!!! I hate it :cry:
Yep, it's straight, the section cut from the top of the lever was the bit that offset the lever to the left. I think it was there to allow clearance between reverse and the hand brake lever but because it is a much shorter throw you don't have any hassles.

i thought welds would make it structurally unsound, i wouldnt wanna throw it back into 4th and have it snap off in my hands
I have been assured by some mech engineers where I work that if welded properly, in this case TIG welded, you shouldn't have any problem with structural strength.

You should write a how-to guide.(with pix) I am sure alot of us are very interested.
I'll get on to that one and let you guys know when i've got a guide ready.

yeah i'm very keen for a guide with some measurements ect.

No offense intended, you've simply shortened the top of the shifter?

I thought there was more too it than that, or maybe i'm thinking more of a 'quick' shifter where the through of the shifter whilst seemingly shorter actually provides more leverage/through were it is needed by lengthening the lever after the pivot point on both the forwards and backwards and sideways levers so that for the now less throw on the top half of the shaft, there is now a larger movement on the throw point after the pivot point.

But if it works then great! :thumbsup:

No offense intended, you've simply shortened the top of the shifter?

I thought there was more too it than that, or maybe i'm thinking more of a 'quick' shifter where the through of the shifter whilst seemingly shorter actually provides more leverage/through were it is needed by lengthening the lever after the pivot point on both the forwards and backwards and sideways levers so that for the now less throw on the top half of the shaft, there is now a larger movement on the throw point after the pivot point.

But if it works then great! :thumbsup:
ahhh mate... looks to me that he moved the pivot point further down....

apparently thats all that RPW do

ahhh mate... looks to me that he moved the pivot point further down....

apparently thats all that RPW do

ahhh i c

I might investigate if there are any shorter shifter kits available out there for the 3000GT/Eclipse/FTO etc that either can bolt straight in or be modified slightly to fit a 3rd Gen.

ahhh i c

I might investigate if there are any shorter shifter kits available out there for the 3000GT/Eclipse/FTO etc that either can bolt straight in or be modified slightly to fit a 3rd Gen.
do liek he did :P but just cut more out of it

No offense intended, you've simply shortened the top of the shifter?

I thought there was more too it than that, or maybe i'm thinking more of a 'quick' shifter where the through of the shifter whilst seemingly shorter actually provides more leverage/through were it is needed by lengthening the lever after the pivot point on both the forwards and backwards and sideways levers so that for the now less throw on the top half of the shaft, there is now a larger movement on the throw point after the pivot point.

But if it works then great! :thumbsup:
What is actually done is to cut and add a 30mm section below the pivot point and then remove about 50mm from above the pivot point(50mm because that’s how long the bent bit is), this reduces the throw required on the top of the lever to about half in the front to back motion and slightly in the side to side.

Overall the gear knob sits 20mm lower then normal because the whole shifter unit is rased by 30mm spacers.

The side to side motion of the shifter is then further reduced by lengthening the pivot arm which is attached to the side of the shifter(I have attached a picture that shows this part cut before lengthening), this could even be made adjustable if you wanted by slightly redesigning the pivot arm with a few bolts for adjustments.

Hope that answers your questions.

I'll have to hurry up and make the guide for everyone.

yeah after installing the RPW short shifter, it is pretty noticable how little work there really is in it... although i don't mind paying for someone to do it for me.

Thanks for the clarity, just from the other pics above it was unclear what had been shorted and which bits had been made longer etc.

Nice work! :thumbsup:

yeah after installing the RPW short shifter, it is pretty noticable how little work there really is in it... although i don't mind paying for someone to do it for me.

How do you find shifting with it?

How do you find shifting with it?

well i have no idea what the standard shifter was like, coz we installed it as part of the conversion, but it isn't actually that much shorter than the standard shifter (possibly 1")
although thats prolly a good thing as it is quite comfortable with your arm resting on the console.

the shifts are still very short between gears, and took a bit to get used to (1st and 3rd are fairly close together) and yeah, 5th still does almost look like 3rd in most cars.... no real complaints though.

do liek he did :P but just cut more out of it

why cut any more out of it? :nuts:

HOw is the how-to guide coming along.

i thought welds would make it structurally unsound, i wouldnt wanna throw it back into 4th and have it snap off in my hands

A good weld is ALWAYS the strongest point of 2 pieces of metal :P so no worries there. If you weld something as an apprentice and in load testing the weld breaks, you fail.

HOw is the how-to guide coming along.
Sorry guys. Been really busy. Got my TS sold on monday, very sad to see that go, i hope it gets looked after!!!

Anyway i made up that guide i was talkin bout. If there are any problems with it just let me know. I hope it is understandable, it's always hard too write doco and not miss something.

PS: Sorry bout the file size, there are a few pics in it.

cummins, I haven't read your DIY guide, so I am not commenting directly on your shifter, but in general, "short shifter" refers to the throw of the shifter and not the Length / height of the stick itself.

RPW Short Shifter is re-engineered so that it has less throw. The stick itself isn't made shorter, if at all it's only very little. You can cut the stick down if you wish, but that means it's actually slightly hard to shift, especially if you are racing and wants to shift fast. Ever seen an actual rally car? is the shift stick tall or short? :)

So with that knowledge in mind, hope everyone is clear on what is a "short shifter" and what is a "short" shifter. :)

Happy DIY. :)

cummins, I haven't read your DIY guide, so I am not commenting directly on your shifter, but in general, "short shifter" refers to the throw of the shifter and not the Length / height of the stick itself.

RPW Short Shifter is re-engineered so that it has less throw. The stick itself isn't made shorter, if at all it's only very little. You can cut the stick down if you wish, but that means it's actually slightly hard to shift, especially if you are racing and wants to shift fast. Ever seen an actual rally car? is the shift stick tall or short? :)

So with that knowledge in mind, hope everyone is clear on what is a "short shifter" and what is a "short" shifter. :)

Happy DIY. :)
Have a read Anthony, see what you think anyway.

With the 'short shifter' i have made the DIY guide for, the throw is reduced to about half of the original throw by re-engineering the shifter to basically move the pivot point.

The reason that the stick sits lower is that the 'kink' in the stock shifter is removed (a common request) ie. The 50mm top ‘kink’ section is removed, shifter raised by 30mm = a stick that sits 20mm lower than normal.

A race shifter sits very high (relatively to a standard car shifter) so that less time is spent with your hands off the wheel while still providing a very short shift, to achieve this in the magna shifter would require a lot more engineering (manufacturing of more complex parts) which would be very hard for the average person to achieve and expensive to manufacture if you were selling them.

The reduction in mechanical advantage of the lever is what will make it hard to shift, so any ‘short shifter’ or ‘shorter’ shifter will be proportionally harder to shift as you reduce the throw.

Sorry mate, just so we are clear.

Cummis, thats a great tech article, I've almost finished most of the AMC tech articles and was wondering if I could host it on the tech articles page?

Blake.

Cummis, thats a great tech article, I've almost finished most of the AMC tech articles and was wondering if I could host it on the tech articles page?

Blake.
Thanks Blake.
No worries, you are more than welcome to add it to the page!

Cummins.

just did this to my brothers and my car yesterday, took a few hrs...... cost nothing:D only thing we did different was we left the kink in the shaft, so its still the same height and looks stock. very nice mod and cheap if you do it ya self.

i reckon you should change the knob... that knob is huge! :)

Depends on who's you're comparing it to!

Why cant they trap thread miners in a hole for 2 weeks?

Why cant they trap thread miners in a hole for 2 weeks?

Because if they start a new thread about the same topic they get told off for not using the search engine. They use the engine, then get told off for thread mining.....make up your minds.

Why cant they trap thread miners in a hole for 2 weeks?


:bowrofl: :bowrofl: :bowrofl:

Because if they start a new thread about the same topic they get told off for not using the search engine. They use the engine, then get told off for thread mining.....make up your minds.
thank you and well said!!!!

good article thanks for turning it into a gem of a writeup.

We are looking at using your guide to help us develop a cheap short throw kit (for people who don't want to chop theres up:) ).

good stuff mate

Added this one into the DIY links sticky

http://www.aussiemagna.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45652

There is more force required to move the shifter as i've removed a fair bit of the mechanical advantage of the lever. You do feel more of the gears actually engaging but no crunch that i can tell.

One of my friends has a TH with an rpw short shifter and after I drove it for about an hour my shoulder actually started to feel sore!