If it's the one for the newer car (sometime in 04+) it's the same height as the stock shaft. If it's the older one I don't know.

 

It's maybe 1/2 an inch to an inch lower. Took me a couple of days to get used to, adn now a stock shifter feels weird.

 

any pics of it installed... can comparo pics@!!!...

 

Someone else said it was 1.75 inches shorter. Do you have a picture of it installed in your car? 1/2 inch seems fine. An inch I'll have to look at. 1.75 was a deal breaker.

Maybe I'll take the cover off and measure the stick.

Rich

 

I'll try to get a pic at lunchtime. The camera is at home.

 

Ok...pics of my B&M Short shifter installed.




And this shot shows the stock one from the same angle.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the tops of the shifters, but here's the stock one, the Craven at min and max heights (photoshopped), and the B&M.
I got rid of the B&M; too hard to shift.
The Craven is really nice, but I miss the boot.

 

I bought a B&M but have not installed it because of the possible lowered ball height. Now I see where's the shorter throws come in with the much longer bottom stick on the B&M(and less so on the others) verus the stocker. I might locate/buy a JCW **** which is not a **** but a shaped something .It is taller which could bring up the location to near stock and still have a shorter throw.

 

With the B&M, the lower part of the shaft is longer, but on my 03, I am still using the factory dustcover, so it's not THAT much longer.

 

What cover are you talking about?The interior boot/dust cover would not be affected. However the underside cover under the car, ,thats another story.

 

The height of the stock shifter from the top of the pivot ball to the very top of the shifter is 212mm or 8 3/8 inches. I'll get measurements of the ~04+ B&M later tonight.

 

My shifter is 6 5/8" at the same area. For a 2003 MCS

 

As you can see from these pictures what is making your shifts shorter is the extended length of the lower rod where the cable connects. If you still desire stock shifter height and non-adjustable the Helix style is much cheaper, will install much easier, and will work just as well as any of the others. The Helix just extends the length of the lower rod. It's $50 vs $200 plus, the choice is yours.
Steve

 

The dust cover on the bottom of the shifter box. Between the car and the exhaust.

 

I've heard that the B&M for the 04-06 cars has a new dustcover that causes trouble with the heatshield and catbacks like the Milltek, is that true? Since I have a Milltek catback, how hard is it to adjust the dustcover to work fine without touching the heatshield? I like the B&M because of its new metal bushings...

Also, I'd like the **** to be about at stock height, wouldn't that reduce much of the effect of adjustable ones like the Craven Speed or Alta ones?

 

allright so I run the cravenspeed with an ebay kits bushings salvaged from a 30 dollar kit, a TSW engine dampner , and a whalen shift machine ****. I would have rather spent the dough on the webbmotorsports shifter because it is shiny and currently I get a little surface corrosion on my cravenspeed when it sits for about a week. The set up I run costs some dough but running the webbmotorsports is exactly what you are looking for.

 

Heh! I'm fighting this right now. I've got the B&M short shifter on my '06 MCS and the new box defintatly extends down farther than the stock unit. This intrudes into the space that the heatshield wants in the exhaust tunnel. It would be easy enough to reshape the heat shielding a bit so that it doesn't rub on the new shifter housing, but I've also got the Alta 2.5 catback exhaust which puts a resonator right there! I cut out their resonator, replaced it with a bottle-type one from Vibrant (great sound!), but I still get a bit of contact in there somewhere.

I've got a DIY day at my local dealership this weekend and I'm going to get the car up on a lift and see what I can do to straighten things out. Right now, it rattles like a Yugo when cold but quiets right down when the exhaust system warms up.

 

Well, in the meantime I've found out that my car, albeit being a 02/2004 build which according to realoem should have the newer shift lug, has the old style one so I'd need the B&M kit for 02-03 cars, which doesn't have this problem. Good for me!

Anyway, your dealership lets you use their lift to do DIY jobs? I wish dealerships were like this in Italy too, I'd save many $$ having to go to my local mechanic for everything I need to check or do under the car. I don't have jackstands, but maybe I should buy them...

 

Yep... we are lucky enough here in Dallas to have 2 great dealerships. They both support our local club and were both generous enough to offer free oil, coolant, consumables for a pit-stop that I help to organize for MINI Takes the States a few years back.

I bought my MINI at Moritz as they had a better sales and service reputation when I got my car. MINI of Dallas and I had a rocky start (poor customer service) when I first went there over 3 years ago to test drive a car, but they changed ownership and the place is definately turning around. They have a much better track record in the past year or two and have been very generous to my local MINI club. They allow us to come in once every 3-4 months to use the lifts all day on a Saturday... they even feed us lunch and hand out hats/shirts/etc. It's a great way to get up under the car and really check things out. It also makes jobs like exhaust work much easier!

 

That's how all dealerships should be!!

 

Just installed a B&M SSK on my 03 MCS - What a great package! Short, still fairly easy to shift, nice defined notch for each gear, very solid. Great piece too - the lever is well made, fits perfect, as to the replacement solid bushings for the carrier housing. Comes with everything needed to swap it over, including grease and new screws to attach the housing, and fairly easy to read directions too!

I coupled this with a Whalen cue ball **** with the 6 spd shift pattern engraved, and an Audi TT rubber accordian style boot. Love the look and feel - well worth the money!

 

Looks like I had the issue with the B&M short shifter housing and resonator on the Alta 2.5 exhaust figured out, but there was a bit of welding slag on one of the new resonator joints that was rubbing. I took a griding wheel to it and 10 minutes later I had gotten rid of the rattle. I also found that I had 3 broken exhaust hangers, so those got refreshed and all is right with the world!

I've gotta give props to MINI of Dallas, who sponsored a "Do it yourself" day in their brand new (to them) shop facility. They hadn't even moved in yet and they rushed the lift installs so we could have full use of their 16-bay facility! What a dealership! We had almost every bay full for the entire day and MINI of Dallas brought in a BBQ lunch and gave away prizes! How cool!

FYI: The shop was completely empty when we got there. Every one of the cars in this pic had a club member under it, doing a wide variety of work from oil changes to oil pan gasket replacements!

 

So by short do you mean closer to the floor?

 

That pic looks like the paradise of MINI enthusiasts, at least here in Italy where no dealership would do this. I'm gonna save it, thanks for posting!

Nice that you fixed your rattle too

 

Heh... It was a wonderful day! Honestly, I'm amazed that they let us do it and that they went out of their way to get the new facility opened up early for us to use (plus the free lunch and swag). MINI of Dallas used to have some customer service issues but the ownership changed over a year ago and I've gotta give them credit for an incredible turn-around.