anyone installed this ? www.ikeya-f.co.jp/en/

 

is it just me, or is the product description a little odd?

 

Not being able to go straight into neutral sounds like a really bad idea for an h-pattern shifter. Most cars can't shift into 1st gear very easily above 10 MPH or so, and the last thing I'd want to do is wear out the syncros by shifting down every time you lower you speed...although I guess you could just do it once you're stopped.

That thing costs nearly a thousand dollars, though.

 

It's pointless IMHO, unless you're addicted to gadgets that only make the car look or feel faster without actually improving the performance at all. You still need to use the clutch and the syncros can't take lighting fast shifts, so you won't be able to improve shift times much if any.

 

a nice perhaps 6 speed sequential shifter would be nice. But the 7k price tag isnt worth it!

 

Isn't that counter-productive as advertising?

 

Yeah. That's the bit that threw me for a loop. At least they are honest.

The description made more sense when I reread it, just really awkwardly worded/verbose. I would never buy a performance part from a company that cannot spell braking. Lol

 

it probably varbatim translated from another language, which would explain the fact that things dont make sense in the traditional english sense

 

its total engrish, don't hate.

ive seen some videos of track fd's in japan using it. i think dragon (yellow 20b fd dragon) had one on his fd.
-Ben Martin

 

Rall guys use it, most of the fastest street/track cars use them, JGTC uses them. I dont see how someone could think its a bad thing! No miss shifts (unless you bump the shifter wrong) Will shift faster then most shifts during a race. If I had the money to blow, id pick one up, but for the 7k price tag, its not worth it to the average joe. Example of who runs one RE Amemiya FD's, both JGTC and the white FD, which is supposed to be the fastest street/track FD. 56.8x at tsukuba

 

It actually converts to about $1200 US (140 000 Yen).

I think Turbo23 is confused, this is just a shifter that bolts to the STOCK transmission. The rally cars, JGTC cars, etc use true sequential gearboxes, with automatic clutches. Some of the really fast Japanese tuner cars use sequential gearboxes too, or at very least dog boxes with straight cut gears. The internal design is also different, I beleive they use dog rings, not synchros.

I don't think it's worth it, because its still the same tranny underneath, so it's really just an expensive toy, or gimmick. If you're constantly missing shifts, learn to shift better! If you want faster shifts, then practice, or a short shifter might help, but fast shifts and synchros don't mix well, it'll seriously shorten the life of the tranny.

If you really want a good tranny, get a dog box, there's a few places that sell the dog ring, straight cut gearsets to fit into the stock TII case (Guru for one).

 

Amen Black91.

I never understood Engrish. Surely, there must be someone 'over there' that can speak proper English (ie. if someone asked me to translate something into Japanese, I'd tell them to go find some one who is better qualified...)

 

ya sorry, the site he posted is blocked at my military base (middleeast)

 

id rather have my short shifter

 

^^^ What he said.

 

Make a tallboy shifter like mine. Shift almost as fast as a dogbox. Short throw shifters are fine if you like shifting very slowly.


Synchros die rapidly, but once they're dead, you can shift even faster since they don't block it anymore. The trans makes ugly graunching noises when you shift hard after you kill the synchros off, but then so do dogboxes.

 

any links or care to elaborate on a tallboy shifter?

**EDIT** Did a search, no explanation needed

 

My latest one is an A2 Golf inner tie rod end welded to the bottom half of a stock shifter, then bent to such an angle that I can shift without taking my hand off of the steering wheel. Retapped to 12x1.50 for stock shift **** goodness.

The old way with the dowel pin puts the shifter too far forward IMO.

 

I'm still using the stock shifter, because it works just fine for me, and I don't really see the point in changing it because there's no speed to be gained there.

 

I have wanted to extend the shifter for sometime, for easier accessability. I notice all the sequential tranny guys have their shifters right there, I wasnt sure how it would affect the throw, I think ill give it a try now!

 

There's lots to be had. A longer lever makes for more mechanical leverage against the synchros so that you can ram right past them.

Again, bad for synchro life, but shifting gets faster after the synchros die anyway, so it's win-win. After switching to Shockproof gear oil, the bearings don't die so rapidly, either. Five events on the current transmission, they used to last only one or two.

 

Well my car's still a street car with the occasional track day / driving school, it's far from a competition car. I'll gladly give up 1/10 second on a shift or whatever to not have the tranny die, besides, I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to shift like that unless I've got a dog box. It doesn't matter in the end for me, since it's not a race, and times are irrelevant.

I'll look for speed elsewhere before I start to abuse parts purposefully.

 

Perhaps. On the other hand, there is nothing on a race vehicle that is not expendable. If a transmission hangs up and costs me a second on a run, that sucker is either getting rectified or thrown off of a cliff.

Given that the current trans has been in the car for most of the racing season, I would say that it's not really being abused. The Shockproof gear oil is wonderful stuff. It's also bad for synchros, but synchros are a convenience for people who don't want to know how to drive, or don't want their car to make little grindy noises when they shift. Bearings are much, much more important. You can live without synchros, but without good bearings, the gears chew themselves apart.

 

But wouldn't all those little bits of syncro that you're grinding iff into the oil hurt the bearings?

 

That was the problem I was running into before, and why the bearings would not last.

The Shockproof oil attacks this problem in two ways. First, it acts like a much heavier viscosity oil, so the oil film isn't lost so rapidly under pressure and the really fine particles don't seem to pose a problem. But mainly, the gear oil is so high in extreme pressure additives that the synchros don't work very well to begin with! They can't generate much friction against the cones, so the slider falls right through the synchro teeth without much actual synchronization being done.