Alta had a great sale so I finally bit the bullet and bought one. After all the discounts it was around 80 bucks shipped. Great deal!

The install was pretty easy but there were a few parts that really kicked my butt and I spent a lot of time on.

The connector for the DSC buttons were very hard to get off. You squeeze the bottom sides of the connector to disconnect them. I'm not sure how a person with big fat fingers will do this

The other part that really had me befuddled was the shifter box cover under the car. It is held on by several clips. The clips are very strong. The easily accessible one were easy to get off, the other ones were very hard to get to. I tried a multitude of different tools to disconnect them. Using a small allen wrench, the spring hook looking thingy from the jack kit. I forget what actually got the clips removed, I think i just yanked it off out of desperation.

The exhaust was easy remove the plate, disconnect the rubber bumpers from the muffler then move aside.


I have mine set at the shortest setting. The throws are a little harder/heavier but that's the way I like it. And since the action is quicker, I can rev match easier on the downshifts.

I left the cover off. After more than 1 year of driving there was NO dirt on/around the shifter box cover. It STILL looked clean. I ran my finger along the surface expecting to find a film of dirt...none. I guess the heat shield keeps out most of the stuff and the exhaust heat dries any moisture that may find its way in (and I'm from the NE where they throw down all sorts of crap on the roads to deal with the snow/ice). Good engineering!

It's a great mod. The slop is gone (didn't know that there was so much) and now the shifting matches the tight handling and delivery of power of the car.

If you love bumping through the gears, and love being at "one" with your mini, you need this mod. I highly recommend it!

 

That's cool and all... except that they discontinued the short shifter

 

OH!...That's too bad. :(

Sucks to be you

From the guy that ALWAYS gets the ONE broken ice cream cone in the package and from the guy that ALWAYS runs into the biggest probelms with the smallest of tasks...WOO HOOO!!!!!! THINGS FINALLY WENT MY WAY!

JK, I'm sure there's a v2.0 around the corner. Maybe they'll even have a introductory price sale or something.

It is a very nice mod though. Its up there with getting the aero kit, even somewhat better as you touch it every time you drive.

Post the pics of V2.0 when you get it

 

I'm just butt hurt because I actually ordered it during the Cyber monday sale to be told that they didn't have any and weren't making any either. They removed it from the website within an hour of my order.

I'm debating on just modding the stock shifter.

 

Have you looked at CravenSpeed's Adjustable Short Shifter?

 

I've read some really bad things online about "modding" the stock shifter in cars. Something about the weight you put into each shift being different and messing up the transmission over time. There's a lot of math involved, and pretty much just chopping an inch or two off the shifter shaft is a bad idea i guess.

SmokeM, I have the ALTA SSK too, but I was afraid to leave the box cover off since I live in Buffalo and there's always so much crap on the roads in the winter. But now that I think about it, the cover was perfectly clean when I took it off (right before I snapped it in half ).

Did you have to bend the heat shield at all so the shifter can be in the lowest position?? If not maybe I'll just leave the cover off then, I've never been able to have it all the way down.

 

Looking that this from a common sense perspetive, the shifter is connected to the tranny via cables. Its flexible! I think in some cars where the tranny is directly connected to the shifter via linkages, you'd run into problems.

The ONLY places I can "see" any problems happening over a period of time would be:
- Where the shifter cables enter into the tubes exiting the box
- The white nylon/plastic sockets

IF you drop the shifter height you will effectlivly change the cable's entry angle into the tubes which MAY cause additional friction. BUT...I was able to move the shifter from UNDERNEATH the car with no noticeable drag at the shortest shifter height.

I think the white nylon sockets would take the most beating since, you've changed the factory set fulcrum to one that requires "more" force to move. (think see saw) BUT again, that plastic piece is pretty solid so it probably won't have any problems as long as you keep it lubed. Maybe over time it will crack like all plastic does, as it experiences the hot cold cycles of the NE.

Yes, I found it very strange that after 20k miles, there was no dirt in the shifter tunnel. Had I found EVEN a little bit of film, i would have put the cover back on. I had to take two swipes for me to believe it

I have mine on the lowest setting. I don't think the cable touches the shield. I would think I would hear all sorts of vibration nosies as the shifter rattles/rubs against the thin heat shield.