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I'm sure most of you have see the eBay short shifter that's available for about $40 shipped. Given that the auction lists the part as fitting 05-09+ Cooper and S models, I was rather skeptical about the piece. Unfortunately, despite the exceptional looking offerings from shops like Cravenspeed, I just can't afford the price of their piece so I decided to give the cheap eBay shifter a try. It came in today and, although the freebie knob looks as cheap as it was, the shifter itself is interesting. I measured it out and the portion of the shifter from the pivot ball to the bottom is only about 1mm longer than the stock shifter. I doubt that it is going to effect the throw much. The shifter shaft is straight, like the factory piece but about 2.5" shorter. I took some measurements of the factory shifter and took some pictures. I'll let the pics speak for themselves and leave this thread open to discussion.
The tolerances aren't too far off, but I'm not sure I'm going to use the piece. My main motivation to change out the shifter was not to reduce the throw, I'm okay with the factory throw, but to have a threaded shifter providing far more options for shift knobs. I think the factory knob is too large and not at all attractive. And while the Whalen knob has its appeal, if I'm not going to shell out for a short shifter, I'm not buying a Whalen! I'm currently leaning towards machining the factory shifter to accept most Japanese aftermarket shift knobs.
I figured I'd post all this up for the curious amongst us.
Well here is my bit of input. Being a 2nd apprentice machinist, the reverse ball might be a tight fit (0.032" larger), the bottom one will fit no prob, the main ball is smaller (0.011") which isn't bad, might be a hair of movement. But what my old schooler buddy asked me when I put mine in "Why didn't you just cut 2" off the top?". Just like what you said, the only downside to that is that the throw will be shorter and harder.
Scott.
ps. Alta has their's for $100 bucks. I got that one and it's awesome!
__________________ 2010 R56 Cooper S Midnight Black w/t Redwood Leather, Escort 9500ix, Homemade CAI & turbo muffler delete, Alta 22mm R sway bar,Drag DR-20 on Nexen N3000 225/45/16, TSW 14-12mm studs, Alta SSK w/t homemade shift knob, M7 STB, Racing Dynamic carbonfiber R strut bar, IE SS Brake lines, Invidia catback exhaust.
2010 R56 Cooper S Midnight Black w/t Redwood Leather, Escort 9500ix, Homemade CAI & turbo muffler delete, Alta 22mm R sway bar,Drag DR-20 on Nexen N3000 225/45/16, TSW 14-12mm studs, Alta SSK w/t homemade shift knob, M7 STB, Racing Dynamic carbonfiber R strut bar, IE SS Brake lines, Invidia catback exhaust.
