building a short shifter ...pics and video

[viper92086]

so i am building my own short shifter. THe reason: i can't afford a c's right now and i have a ebay one which is great, but it could be better. My idea was to modify the stock since it has been already engineered to work great. I had started looking at an old thread from 2005 where a guy did a similar mod to fit in a is300 shortshifter, but i didn't like how the is300 shifter was not angled. so far what i have is the custom spacer/pivot i will be using that i just finished cutting off a mkII. My plan is to perform the sogi mod on the shifter and then extend the actual fork portion of the shifter to create the short throw. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated let me know what you think so far. I will be updating this thread to let you guys know how i built it and how well it performs.





UPDATEEDDD!! first post updated with all pics and video for future reference. i love the way this shifter feels. pics are no in order btw, u can read the thread for descriptions. i hope this all helps someone in the future. All comparisons in picture are with the ebay mk1 short shifter which is a very decent shifter for the money btw! do a search for my review on the ebay shifter. it will be for sale soon!

 

[gaboonviper85]

Sorry I have to agree, the Sogi mod is garbage compared to a real short throw shifter.

The Sogi suffers from a harmonic vibration/buzz (just what the rubber isolator in the stock shifter is designed to cancel out).

and what short throw shifter doesnt vibrate exactly?.....from what i understand majority of the nice shifters make noise...and yes my sogi mod is annoying as hell!!!! i have no problems with the way it feels and or shifts even though the throw is still too far...but it beats haveing a 20foot throw on the stock....

id rather have the stock shifter myself but i bought my car with a fucked up stock shifter so i had to do something about that to make it more presentable....

 

[gaboonviper85]

SupraSports V2 doesn't

Dellow doesn't

Haven't tried a C's but I imagine it doesn't either.

do they have rubber isolators or something to dampen harmonics? or are they extremely tightly machined to not chatter?

 

[Rennat]

you kind of just contradicted your self poodles... if you cut the shifter, an it takes less throw, then you could get your hands back on the wheel sooner...

sure it doesnt make the shifter move any faster, but it takes less time to shift.

 

[IJ.]

Higher force required to make the shift increased chance of a missed shift or a bent shift fork.

 

[viper92086]

folks lets just stay on this short shifter topic, not whether or not the sogi mod is good or bad... its personal opinion and i don't really care to hear about it since i've read it all in other threads. I'm just trying somthing else that may benefit the supra community.


as for now i just finished separting my 3rd stock shifter and this one came off interesting. i managed to take the black portion off without breaking the rubber... first time i ever seen this. i started turning and turning and realized the the rubber wasn't breaking but the metal sleeve that is normally glued started moving... so in my head i'm thinking awesome cause just in case if i want to put the black portion back on when i'm done i can. I also noticed as i hold the shifter to my guess is netrual position in my hand it looks like the shifter kind of angles to the right. is that normal? i thought it would angle to the left for left hand drive.. i just never really noticed. the progress might become slower because my welder won't be home until this weekend. but till we can figure out how to make this thing better.

 

[viper92086]

Wrong, as you're searching for your shifter I've reached over and shifted already.

The SOGI mod is NOT faster, ask anyone who drag races a lot (like Duane).

Back to Viper, your mod will more than likely work if you can get a GOOD weld on the extension. It will also be pretty close to stock height...

i sure hope so poodles. i was thinking tho, should i weld an extension where i would have two welds, or go back to the junkyard and see if i can find another shifter and cut it so that i have one weld on my new shifter. also my other question would be what would happen if the shifter snapped at the weld. from the looks of it i would basically screw myself where i would be stranded but nothing would actually fall in where it shouldn't go. but i want to hear your opinions

 

[viper92086]

Here's a comparison from the ebay short shifter to the sogi mod in case anyone needed to know. notice how the ball on the ebay short shifter is smaller than the one on the stock shifter. this causes a tad bit of play with the bushing installed. i also noticed that when i am done with my stocker shifter it should have a slightly shorter throw than the ebay one.

 

[Facime]

looks like the pivot pin notch is significantly different too. odd.

If you are worried about getting a good weld going stick to stick, you can always do a roll pin wrap. Take a good sized roll pin, and open it up enough (or slice it in half) to wrap around the bar you are welding. It will act alot like a gusset.

 

[viper92086]

looks like the pivot pin notch is significantly different too. odd.

If you are worried about getting a good weld going stick to stick, you can always do a roll pin wrap. Take a good sized roll pin, and open it up enough (or slice it in half) to wrap around the bar you are welding. It will act alot like a gusset.

oh the pivot notch is diff because on the ebay one there is a bushing missing that i took out to clean. the ebay one is only a single pivot, not like the stock one where you have two. i think what im more worried about now about welding is getting it straight. i just finished cutting the extension peice and finished cutting the ball, its just welding it straight. my friend suggested that i drill a very small hole right down the middle of each peice and put a nail in it to hold them together for him, or try using epoxy and hope that it gives him enough time to tack weld the section

 

[viper92086]

another update, this will probably be the last for at least a couple of days until my friend gets back home. He's the guy doing the welding since im still a noob at welding. In this pic i had cut the threads off the stock black portion of the shifter and made it my extension peice. i may later try to modify the vibration damper and install back on my short shifter setup. once everything is welded up i will try to smooth everything out and make it look decent. As you can see my new shifter will actually be a bit longer from the pivot to the end compared to the ebay version. this is because my new setup will sit a tad higher, but not as high as the is300 short shifter mod that i had seen earlier on this forum

 

[CRE]

Is that Ebay one a Mookeeh? I thought they were height adjustable (well, the first gen or second... the one that looks like that, not the thin one).

Sorry for posting my thoughts about the SOGI mod... hadn't intended for it to become the new topic in this thread... yes, it's been beat to death more than enough in other threads and it should stay there.

Have you looked for the info on Nash's short shifter? I still don't know what the difference is and he may be of assistance to you getting some of the quirks worked out.

 

[Poodles]

The issue about the welds is you NEED good penetration (giggidy)

The shifter takes a LOT of abuse, some people have broken nash's shifter because of this...

 

[CRE]

I hadn't read about someone breaking one of Nash's, but I did figure it was only a matter of time.

 

[Clip]

it's true, my trans makes a helluva lot more noise than it used to but it's still smooth as silk (w58 with new toyota bushings)

 

[Quin]

I can't stand short shifters, don't understand the craze with them. Not really a fan of short throws either, annoying to drive normally and couldn't possibly save any significant amount of time. Learn where your gears are and move faster.

 

[tekdeus]

Definately a good idea to keep the rubber damper. The vibration is annoying and the heat is worse.

 

[Ma70.Ent]

Most or All SOGI posts deleted due to request of topic creator.

 

[giterboosted]

well i made a halfway between a sogi and what this guy is trying to create, i love it, i have done it twice, because the first time was waaay too short and required way too much effort, but i made mine again and added about 3/4 to a whole inch to my earlier design and its absolutely perfect

 

[viper92086]

do you have a pic? i mean this one i am making is a shorter throw than the ebay one, so now you got me worried. i don't want it to end up to be too short throw. the only other mod like this is a guy took that collar i have then used it to mount a is300 shortshifter so the throw was probably even shorter than what i am designing