I installed a B&M Ripper shifter yesterday and it sucked like a veteran hooker. I don't know if anyone else had this problem, but my shifter housing is aligned too much to the right, so one of the bolts was impossible to get to because it was under the car. I had to get a tire iron and pry my tranny to the left and unbolt it with my other hand. It wasn't an easy job to do by myself. Is my PPF tweaked or my tranny housing misaligned?

After I remove the old shifter, now it was time to put in the new one. Because my tranny was too far to the right, it was hard to put in the new B&M unit because the shifter housing was larger than the original and wouldn't align. I had to take my tire iron and bend the metal around the shifter of the car up so the shifter housing would clear.

Now for the test drive. I noticed a really nasty rattling buzzing coming from the tranny. I read about this on Mazdatrix's website. I took apart the shifter boots and cover and drove around with the drive shaft visible.
Everytime I accelerated in the lower gears, my tranny would move to the right even more and rub against the frame of my car and make an awful noise.

The fix was to bend the metal of the body of my car even more so that the shifter housing wouldn't touch the body of the car at all. The rattling noise is almost gone compeletely. I did fill the gear oil all the way to the top too. I don't know if the Mazdaspeed, C's, or Pettit units housings are oversized like the B&M, so this might not be the problem with all units.

Shifting now is notchy and really hard move, but maybe it needs to be broken in. If I were to do it again, I would not install a short shifter in my car. It wasn't worth it.

 

I hear you. It was kind of a pain. When I pulled the stupid stock shifter off, it splashed gear oil all over the inside of my car. It sucked royal a$$.

However, my B&M does feel pretty good now. It has been on a few months..and it gets better the longer it is on.

Did you make sure to get that little nylon bushing that goes on the bottom of the shifter?....(it snaps on the ball at the end of the stick).

Mine does rattle. I didn't fill my resivour up, because it was already full.....

My shifting was way better than stock. I really like mine....and I like I said, it gets better.

Later,
Patrick

 

I hated my b&m , i didn't like the fact that you have to use some force to get it in gear, I like the smoothness of the stock shifter so you can shift by push with one finger

but the shift length and the nutreul play was nice and tight..

is there a short shift kit available, but still have the smoothness of the stock shifter??

 

my mazdaspeed is in the mail. ill tell you guys how it is as soon as i get it and install it
i hope i wont have any of the problems that you guys have with the B&M

 

The bolts that attach the shifter in are probally too tight... That's what causing the hard shifting. I have the Mazdaspeen one now but if I overtighten the bolts then the shifting gets to be too much effort.

I had the C's a couple years back and that one was tough to get in reverse when the car was hot. The Mazdaspeed is a little better.
Every few months I snug them up a little.

best of luck... jc.

 

I've had the Mazdaspeed short shifter installed for around one year. I didn't have the alignment problems that you experienced during your install. I've never had a rattle, but there is sort of a "growling" sound that is louder than the stock shifter. I always figured it is because some of the rubber bushings were gone, so that more driveline noise gets transmitted into the cabin.

 

I have the B&M and it wasn't difficult to install at all. Took me 20 minutes. Mine does growl once in awhile. At first, it was kinda stiff, but after a year using it, it's pretty smooth and tight.

 

The shifter is just a lever. It pivots around the fulcrum (the large ball in the tranny housing) with the gear selector on one end and your hand on the other. All a short shifter does is move the fulcrum further away from the gear selector so that a short input with your hand creates a longer one at the gear selector compared to stock. This also means the short shifter has much less mechanical advantage and will therefore always take more force to actuate than the stocker.

 

Can't you chop off half an inch off the top of the stock shifter and re-thread it? That'll make is sit really low huh?

But I feel that the stock shifter is fine. The only time I really need to shift quick is when I'm dragging. But that's once in a blue moon. Also, I've heard that with some short shifters you can ruin your synchros by shifting too quickly. But I guess that all depends on the driver and his clutch/throttle timing.

 

my B&M went in fairly easy. the hardest part was getting the stock shifter out since it was RTV'd to the tranny. but i did manage to break it free without splashing any tranny fluid inside the car.

mine seemed to fit just fine, too. if you're sitting in the driver seat, the top-right bolt was a little close to the metal edge of the shifter console, but nothing a ball-end hex wrench couldn't get to.

mine also is a little noisy in the first 3 gears (maybe even a little noisy in 4th, too, but i don't remember). maybe i'll have to drive around with the console off to see if anything is rubbing on the frame.

also, mine was pretty stiff at first, but after awhile (it's been installed for about a month or so now) it does seem to loosen up -- or maybe i'm just getting used to it