Does anyone here has a short shifter on their 350Z? If so what brand and how do you like it?

 

Had the new B&M. The shop working on my car hated it so much I let them pull it off and went back to stock. There was noticeable noise under load.

Bruce

 

I dont know if I would do a short shifter... There has been many reports on these forums of problems due to short shifters... Do a search, I am too scared to try one out!

 

I've had a Rogue short shifter in my Z for the last year, and I love it. Besides having a shorter throw, it's faster and more precise than OEM. Initially, the shift effort was way up, but it eased in a month or 2, and I'd say now it's barely stiffer than stock. If you put a light **** on, it may buzz enough to be irritating, but I've used a fairly heavy aluminum Voodoo Magnum sphere that worked great, and currently a CNC'ed stainless steel pistol grip that I really like. A fair amount of vibration, but no buzz.

If you do put on an SSK, I'd suggest an engine damper as well, which helps keep the shifter well-located WRT the trans. as the engine torques over. It does make a difference.

 

350evo shifter hands down! Precise shifts and not extremely notchy like some of the other shifters on the market.

 

I can't help jumping into the middle of this one. I've read so much fanciful stuff about short shifters and their characteristics on this and other boards that I feel like I've stumbled onto a bunch of posts advocating "intelligent design" (the stupid variety, not high technology).

First of all, a short shifter is the second most simple performance device you can slap onto our cars. (The most simple a z-tube added to a G35.) It's simple because there's only one moving part: a ball tightly fitted in a cup making up the "pivot" of the shifter. This pivot sits in a similarly shaped hollow in the top of the transmission housing just beneath the bulk of the shifter. The long end comes up into your hand with a **** screwed onto it, and the shorter end goes straight down into the transmission linkage under your car.

Now there's only two ways you can improve on the stock shifter, which is pretty sweet to begin with. One is to make a better ball/cup pivot and, second is to alter the ratio between the lengths of the top and bottom shifter rods. Making a better, smoother, beefier cup can add some precision and longevity to the shifter, eliminating the slop that happens as the shifter ages. Unfortunately, the Rougue shifter completely ignores this one moving part by making you reuse or re-buy (at extra cost) the stock flimsy Nissan, plastic cup. B&M designed an entirely new cup and ball--the ball being a smooth brass and the cup housing made out of machined T6 aluminum. It's butter smooth and extremely beefy.

The other improvement, changing the length ratios, is what all short shifters do. The only real difference is how much they change it. By shortening the upper shaft and lengthening the lower shaft (just like moving the fulcrum of a see-saw towards your side), the throw is shortened and the effort is increased by the same percent--think of the see-saw again. Why is this a good thing? Because a shorter throw is more precise--a smaller movement of your hand result in a larger movement at the bottom. This, essentially, amplifies the effect of your arm movements while reducing the extent of them. Rogue only shortens the throw by 20%--some folks say they barely notice the change. B&M goes to 33% which I personally like very much. The Mossy can go down to 40%. I have no idea what this feels like.

Some folks don't like the increased effort that has to result from this ratio change and that has nothing to do with the brand of shifter (except for what percent a given brand shortens the throw). The reason to enjoy the increased effort is the same as the reason sports cars reduce the ease of power steering or reduce the advantage of power brakes--once again, better feel and control. That's why the Z and G don't have the overly light steering and braking of a land yacht. Some folks just want to keep the shifting light and soft--they shouldn't get a short shifter. I very much like the firm, positive "thunk" of a short shifter gear shift--you absolutely know you're past the gate. Feels awesome.

The stiffness and "notchiness" of the shifter has absolutely nothing to do with the shifter--it created by the transmission itself. Because our cars have a direct shift linkage, there's little slop and more transmission through the shifter of vibration. Compare this to the longer, more complicated linkages in the Porche--very sloppy feeling compared to ours, but less vibration. This is why the notion of "breaking in" a short shifter is nonsense. What breaks in is your getting used to the extra effort of shifting--takes a week or two.

Vibration is reduced in amplitude by a short shifter because the upper shaft being shorter moves a shorter distance with each back-and-forth of vibration. The B&M further isolates the upper shaft by rubber O-rings between the upper and lower shafts. Weighting of the upper shaft further reduces vibration. I definitely feel less vibration in my B&M compared with stock. I don't know if the Rogue isolates with O-rings or not.

Rattling is a separate issue. As long as you don't swap the chamfered spacer from the old shifter to the new B&M, you won't get the crazy metallic buzzing that some people have complained of. The B&M has a diferent, softer rattle that comes from the metal cup sitting in the metal housing rather loosely. Although isolated from you by two rubber boots, a felt pad and the leather boot, you can still faintly hear this at certain RPMs. I don't find it troublesome but B&M assured me they're looking into this. I think they should make the machined aluminum cup a larger diameter to more precisely fit the housing and that they should clad it in smooth vinyl plastic.

 

A couple of observations re the Rogue, gersteinp.

20% is what you get using the stock shift ****. It's somewhat more with something like the Voodoo, which is barely taller than the upper shift arm itself, more on the order of 30%. I don't personally think any shorter would be any better.

If you use a new Nissan cup, which has a very tight fit, there actually is a breakin period, after which shifting is noticably easier, although still requiring more effort than stock, because of the shorter lever arm.

The upper and lower parts of the Rogue are coupled through a large cylinder of some sort of rubber, which does help dampen some of the trans. vibration. A **** with appropriate mass does the rest.

Bottom line, the Rogue installed easily and works perfectly, which is exactly what you should expect from something as simple as a lever.

 

The B and M shifter really is a good shifter, performance wise. but performance items are often times had at the sacrifice of luxury. The b and m shifter works well to really reduce the throws, but you need to put a little more elbow grease into your shifts. It's very precise, and accurate, you always know exactly what gear you'r going for. The rattle however is an annoying side-effect. It is actually caused by the lower and upper portions of the shifter vibrating. The B and M shifter is a two piece design, and even though there are washers in between the upper and lower portions, it still rattles. the only thing that any one of our customers was able to do was to spread an epoxy in between the two halves, to effectively stop most of the noise.
Fidanza is surprisingly a good shifter also, I was really taken with how it felt when I tried it on a Z at SEMA. If I were to go with a short shifter again, i'd go with the Fidanza for sure...

 

I ordered a Fidanza not too long ago and im kind of optimistic about it. I heard that the B&M sucks but not too many people have tried the Fidanza. Ill try it out see how it goes and I'll let yall know

 

I can't for the life of me figure out why some think B&M sucks. It looks, feel and performs like a top quality performance product. Must be the rattle-- which for me is almost unnoticeable. It would be best that anyone who's had a bad experience with B&M call their tech line and report it. They seem very responsive and I bet they'll tweak the shifter to get it closer to perfection.

I don't know anything about the Fidanza and I'm curious to hear your report on it.

 

I have installed the b&m on 350's and g35's. Honestly I like the stock shifter as is. The b&m feels a little funny going into 5th at first, but if you want the short shift that bad you get used to it quickly.

 

I have the Mossy Performance adjustable shifter and it has been great for me...4 way adjustable...does't rattle, works like a dream.

 

Topspeed! bought it off triple8sol for 75 dollars new, its a 20% reduction and no rattles, works great!