D-I-Y : The Short Shifter

[racerdabba]

After reading multiple posts on people cutting the gear lever and labelling it as a short shifter, i decided to make my own design.
So, one lazy afternoon, i opened up the whole shifter section with the linkage rods, and studied the shifter.

The Shifter Rod.



The Shifter ball. The rod moves in this.



The full System



The Shifter Ball.



The shifter rod was cut 4 inches on the upper part of the ball, and 2 inches were added to under section of the ball. Basically the ball and linkage length was increased.




The Ball assy was then exteneded by 2 inches to aling the shifter linkages to the gearbox.





Final Assembly and testing.




This is 3rd gear engaged.



And this is 4th gear engaged. See the throw is really small. And Shifts with an Awesome mechanical clunk.




After this succeded, i worked on to align the assembly, and the crude welds were done with. It has been rewelded with MIG welding, with a CNC cut 3mm Ms plate as base, and 12mm Ms rods as extenders. I also replaced all the bushes. The whole system is completely reversible anytime, in just about 2 hours. No body panels cut, no linkages modified, everything stock.
Feels good to be an engineer.

[V-16]

Buddy i had done a DIY short shift on my Swift almost 4 years ago and its still giving me the thrills. Please go through the posts attached as links below to get an idea what was done. Unfortunately those were the days when we used Imageshack to upload pics so you might not get to see the pictures but the description should be fine. If you do need pictoral back up, i could email you the pics.
Enjoy.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...tml#post673761 (My Swift ZXi...The Mods just begun!!)

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...tml#post674750 (My Swift ZXi...The Mods just begun!!)

[racerdabba]

Originally Posted by V-16

Buddy i had done a DIY short shift on my Swift almost 4 years ago and its still giving me the thrills. Please go through the posts attached as links below to get an idea what was done. Unfortunately those were the days when we used Imageshack to upload pics so you might not get to see the pictures but the description should be fine. If you do need pictoral back up, i could email you the pics.
Enjoy.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...tml#post673761 (My Swift ZXi...The Mods just begun!!)

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/modifi...tml#post674750 (My Swift ZXi...The Mods just begun!!)

So u reduced the linkage length to come up with the shorter throws. I didnt want to tamper the linkages, so modded the Lever and Mounts.

As u said earlier, the pics are gone. Will be very helpful if i saw them. i have dropped a PM.

[V-16]

Sure thing buddy. Am out of town for the next two days. Will email the pics to you on Monday

[theexperthand]

@racerdabba: Nice DIY. One of my friends want to do a short shifter on his Eon - I will forward him this link.

@V-16: If it is not much of a bother, can you upload the pics in this thread? It might help others also.

[Guna]

Originally Posted by racerdabba

Final Assembly and testing.

Attachment 938308

Nice DYI
Did the original panel/housing has the space for the raised assembly?

[racerdabba]

Pictures will do the Talking.

[black12rr]

Good DIY . Basically any DIY rocks .
Coming to point , as I understand , it reduces the throw of the stick right ? . Good to ppl with short hands .

[paras211]

It's supposed to enable you to shift faster

[motomaverick]

Nice DIY, the throw looks really small from 3rd to 4th, hows it with reverse or 1st gear? Did you maintain the angle of the rod?

[somubj]

Nice! Is this possible on a safari?

[autotranny]

Originally Posted by black12rr

Coming to point , as I understand , it reduces the throw of the stick right ? . Good to ppl with short hands .

Its not about the length of the hands; its for quickening shifts, like a rally car does.

Anyway Black12rr gave it a whole new perspective.

Btw, Nice DIY job racerdabba

[black12rr]

Originally Posted by autotranny

Its not about the length of the hands; its for quickening shifts, like a rally car does.

Anyway Black12rr gave it a whole new perspective.

Btw, Nice DIY job racerdabba

I know .Just was thinking about other benefits. This is a short shifter right ? . Not a serial shifter , like 1-2-3-4-5 and 5-4-3-2-1 ?

[racerdabba]

Originally Posted by motomaverick

Nice DIY, the throw looks really small from 3rd to 4th, hows it with reverse or 1st gear? Did you maintain the angle of the rod?

Same goes with 1st/Reverse. Yes i did maintain the angle of the rod. The sideways movement has not been altered. Will have to modify the linkages for that. Let me find another Sunday.

Originally Posted by somubj

Nice! Is this possible on a safari?

Definitely. The same principle can be applied to any car having solid linkages to the 'Box. For Wire linked shifters, a different approach is needed.

Originally Posted by black12rr

I know .Just was thinking about other benefits. This is a short shifter right ? . Not a serial shifter , like 1-2-3-4-5 and 5-4-3-2-1 ?

No. Not a Serial shifter. Just a Short Shifter.

[risham]

Originally Posted by racerdabba

Same goes with 1st/Reverse. Yes i did maintain the angle of the rod. The sideways movement has not been altered. Will have to modify the linkages for that. Let me find another Sunday.

As i understand this you have shifted the fulcrum of the lever ( ball joint) towards the top end to achieve a short throw. So this should act sideways also. Is it so?