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The Definitive Short Throw Shifter Thread

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Old 08-13-2007, 07:45 PM
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Default The Definitive Short Throw Shifter Thread

First a couple of warnings: 1. This post will be long because there is a lot to say about these things and I am a man of many words. 2. My last car was a Galant VR4 which shares its engine and entire drivetrain with the 1G DSM (Mitsu Eclipse, Plymouth Laser, and Eagle Talon awd turbo models). These are notorious for direct but balky shifters. You could spend hours reading threads on various DSM sites about mixes of various gear oils, flywheel step specs, clutch pedal assembly repairs, clutch slave cylinder options, etc. all with an eye to making a DSM shift decently. So coming to the S2000 was like a surgeon upgrading from an axe to a scalpel. All the scalpels tend to look pretty damn good!

A few days ago I installed a C
Old 08-13-2007, 07:45 PM
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How they work: The goal of a short stroke shifter is simply to shorten the shift throws. The length of the shift throw is simply the distance traveled by the very top of the shift knob (or its center if you prefer) as the shift lever is moved from gear to gear. All products designed to produce a shorter throw in the S2000 do this in exactly the same way
Old 08-13-2007, 07:46 PM
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Why bother? First lets start with a BAD reason to go with a short shifter: improved acceleration. The S2000 already has a fairly short throw. Shortening it by 20 or 30 percent is not going to shave even a hundredth of a second from your quarter mile times. It just doesn
Old 08-13-2007, 07:48 PM
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C
Old 08-14-2007, 03:56 AM
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Thanks for the info... Since I'm sure it will help understand how things work - I'll go ahead and share this thread with our 19 year old who is very anxious to install a short shifter in his '03 Civic Si.

Funny thing is... I've driven his Civic and shifter feels great. Maybe I'm just too old and no longer feel the need to modify or incrementally improve my car's performance. Then again, maybe to my old bones the S2K feels just perfect as-is.
Old 08-14-2007, 07:09 AM
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Recently installed a short shifter in my 2000 Civic Hatch -- much shorter throws, feels good overall, but i've definitely lost all feel of the gates, its just so damn tight, which is great in other situations. perhaps i've overtightened and maybe i should make a makeshift bushing/rubber washer for the lever where it bolts to the rod... suggestions?
Old 08-14-2007, 08:08 AM
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I built my own, It is not a solid piece of steel but made of individual parts (no CNC)
The C's JDM version short shifter was on the market here in the USA in limited availability through Ebay about the time I started building my own. I bought the C
Old 08-14-2007, 08:15 AM
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Nice post!
Old 08-14-2007, 09:20 AM
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Nice work Puddydad. VERY nice! Thanks for the additional info on the AxialFlow.
Old 08-14-2007, 10:04 AM
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one of the biggest concern about short shifter that rarely speaks of is the shifting quality.

with the oem shifter a up shift is just one motion, with SOME short shifter you need to bring it up right and up again for a up shift. it's extremely amazingly annoying and actually slow down the shift time.

not saying it's true for every short shifter but it does happens to some.


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