Poor man's short shifter

#1

Under $100. Feels pretty solid so far but the drivetrain isn’t in yet so it’s just me playing with the linkage. Started with the stock E30 setup. Replace front carrier bushings with AKG units. Replace all the spacers and clips with factory fresh. Replace the standard lever with one out of a Z3 1.9. Replace the ridiculously soft rear body mount bushing with nylon. Could still use the fancy milled billet shift arm but I am a poor man so will live with the seemingly still solid factory unit. Dimensioned drawing included for your own fabrication fun. Don’t forget to mill the top slots that engage the tangs in the body like I did. Voila! See you at the track.

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#2

Thanks for this. FWIW, Garagistic sells a delrin bushing for the rear carrier. A shifter rebuild is definitely on my list of planned improvements, and ~$120 sounds just fine to me.

#3

Dang, wish I’d known about the Garagistic part. C’est la vie.

#4

I just went there and bought the bushings for both ends of the carrier and also brake pedal bushings. Thanks for the tip cheapthrills.

#5

Me too, I just ordered a replacement rear carrier for my car. Looks like I’ll return it and order the delrin bushing.

#6

FWIW it looks like you might have to trim the schnoz of the bushing housing to get a good fit for the new bushing, but I had to do that too.

#7

Shoot us a PM for special pricing on both the front and rear delrin bushings. We will take care of the Spec e30 members!

We also got the brake pedal bushings if you really want to go all out. :wink:

Link:
http://store.garagistic.com/ocart/bmw-e30-parts/e30-performance-parts/bmw-bmw-delrin-shifter-bushing

#8

You guys should add an upgraded bushing for the shifter “cup” (the little widget that pins to the end of the shift rod from the transmission) while you’re at it. Not the blind end that pins to the transmission rod, but the through hole bushing that connects the shift rod coming from the shift lever. This was by far the most worn piece in my shift linkage.

#9

You mean part 13, gearshift rod joint, here? http://realoem.com/bmw/showparts.do?model=1113&mospid=47309&btnr=25_0074&hg=25&fg=05
I just removed my “early” rod joint and installed a “late” rod joint. The early one had a little rubber O-ring one the ends that kind of pushed against the yellow plastic washers. I didn’t look inside of it to see what it’s interior looked like so I don’t know if their might be a removable bushing or not.

The late rod joint, however, had no removable bushing. It’s inside was a hard plastic cylinder. Note tho that there’s 2 version of the rod joint available, OEM and MTC, at least that’s the only 2 versions I’ve found. I don’t know which version I had, so maybe I had the MTC one and the OEM one has something better than hard plastic inside that will certainly wear.

Also, I’m pretty sure that an early rod joint needs an early shift rod and similarly for the late rod joint. If the rod joints have the same kind of bushing inside of them, the early one might be a bit better because (this is a little hard to explain) the mating surface between rod joint and rod is longer.

#10

Yep, that’s the doodad. I only have the one, so I don’t know how they differ and can’t tell if it’s an early or late design. The car is an '87 but it looks like some PO had already replaced some of the bushings and yellow washers as they were practically new. The bushing didn’t look like it was meant to be removed but I just stuck a small deep well against it and fairly easily tapped it out.

#11

Early. Note that tension band that holds pin is not in pic. Also not in the pic are little rubber o-rings that go at each end of cylinder.

Late. Note cylinder that holds shift rod is shorter and it uses a tension wire not a tension band.

#12

yall need some of that red spray paint for the calipers…that stuff really works.

kidding aside new shifter parts really help, never understood what a “short shifter” did

Al

#13

I have the early one. The plastic center bushing (where the shift rod goes) was severely worn. You can drive the center bushing right out of it.

#14

No. Beyond the plastic you can see the ID is reduced and there about three key slots. I think the original may be cast in. You will need to drill out the metal inside if you want to put in a different bushing. If your lucky you can do it with a drill press and a high quality drill bit.

#15

Agree, there is a diameter change. And I drilled it out to use 0.500 stock for the new bushing. Can’t vouch for the quality of the bit but it did a nice job.

#16

We got them in stock and ready to ship!

http://store.garagistic.com/ocart/bmw-e30-parts/e30-performance-parts/bmw-bmw-delrin-shifter-bushing