put a short shifter in and what brand would you recommend?

 

Took me 3 hours on my 2003 Cooper. It should only take about 2, but I ran into a problem with some wiring that had been done underneath the car. The problem with the Coopers is that you have to do most of the work "underneath" the car. My wife's Celica took me 30 minutes in the driveway. Everything was done in the cabin.

I use B&M because it's a household name that has many years of building shifters and tranny parts. B&M comes with some pretty good install instructions. Here is kind of a quick run down of what to expect.

To be safe, use a lift, plus it makes things easier. You have to drop the center portion of the exhaust and then remove the heat shielding to get to the gear lever box. Pop the cover off the bottom and you'll see the cables attached to the shifter. Prise off the ends of the cables from the shifter. From inside the car pull off the **** and pull up the circular shifter surrounding the shifter. Unclip the zip tie from around the neck of the shifter boot and remove the boot. Now, down near the base of the shifter, there is a circular cover that needs to be pried off. Back underneath the car, there are four bolts holding the shifter to the floor. Remove these and pull the shifter down through the floorboard. The B&M comes with new bushings and bolts to use so putting the new shifter in is the reverse except you have to put the new bushings in. Now, these instructions I gave you are not to be used for the install. They came from my head and are merely just to give a rough and I mean rough idea of how involved it is to do a B&M shifter install. There are some easiier ones that only require adding an extension to the bottom of the shifter. Do a search on here for more help.

 

I just had a B & M short shift kit installed in my MCS, I did'nt do the install
myself but it took the garage approx. 2 hours to do the whole thing. I am
more than pleased with the result. 30% shorter throws and a much more
solid feel.

 

seriously look at the cravenspeed

 

i use the Helix short shifter and I am very pleased with it. It does not change anything inside the car, it is an extention that is added to the bottom of the shifter (below the car).

The results are great. It does not feel aftermarket, it just feels like the factory shifter should have. Feels solid, and the throw is much shorter than stock. Plus, for about $50, you can not go wrong.

I was putting in a catback exhaust so most of the parts were already off the car.