M/T Transmission Shifter Improvements

Posted by: @not-2-old-for-2-seater

M/T Transmission Shifter Improvements:

During the test drive, before I bought my Spyder Itsy-Bitsy, I remember being very disappointed in how long the shift throws were and how vague the shift pattern was. (Strongly reminded me of a VW bug and/or Volvo PV-544 I had owned many years before.) But then I told myself, "What do you expect, this car has over 150K miles on the clock."

Driving Itsy-Bitsy a few additional thousand miles only confirmed my first impressions regarding the transmission shift mechansim.

Once I started planning for an engine and transmission swap, I began to buy "Bits and Bobs" to improve the shifter feel, reduce the shift distance between shift points, and make the shifter feel generally more "Notchy."

So here is what I bought and had installed:

New, OEM shift cables and clips**, Approximate Cost, Part ONLY, $500.

MWR, Transmission Bushings, Approximate Cost, Part ONLY, $26.

MWR, Short Shifter Kit, Approximate Cost, Part ONLY, $80.

MikeV (He is a vendor who has been very active on Spyder Chat), Euro 6 speed MT with LSD**, Approximate Cost, Part ONLY, $1,500. (ASIDE: Being able to cruise my 1ZZ Spyder at 85 MPH while only turning 3.5K RPMs, PRICELESS!)

OUTCOME:

Shift travel is greatly reduced and shifter feel is almost optimal. Given that I made all of these changes all at once, it is impossible for me to attribute the impact of any single item.  What would be a very interesting experiment, would be for someone to install only one of these components (at a time) and then report back to this forum what the impact of the single component actually is.

**Items that are fairly expensive to install/have installed

for those of you who still have the OEM rubber bushings in your shifter ends, the best replacement I know of are the small ball-bearings used in skateboards.  Somewhere in the Spyderchat archives is the correct part number.  They are available in shielded or sealed versions and will last forever and have no play at all.

I have driven this Spyder and it has the best shifter out of all the Spyder examples I have driven. Mine is 2nd best. 

The way the gates felt were tight with a positive engagement. 

I recall on SC there was a group buy for Delrin caps to go over the tranny cable ends long ago. I’ve been using these for many years instead of the rubber OEM type and still have a nice tight shifter. I’m using the brass bushings that came with the TRD short shifter as well. With both of these, the shift action is very solid and not sloppy at all.