Damn, I had a hella time taking off the shift ****. I held the base with vise grips and did the old rubber on the **** like the instructions say. Well, by the time i was through, the stock shift **** was in pieces, the amount of force you have to use is incredible. I checked the threads and they used a fair amount of red thread lock. The new nismo shift **** is plastic inside, it says self threading, so i screwed it on by hand and it started getting tight so i looked to see where the nismo logo was and it was way on a weird angle, so i twisted a bit more and it broke the plastic threads inside that i guess it cut while i was screwing it on. The bottom threads were still intact, so i put more red thread lock on it and letting it dry now. It's working fine, but just a warning not to over tighten the damn thing, it's just too sensitive.

 

man i had hell changing my shift **** two days ago also!! i think my shifter is broken but i was able to get it to work how it is, and will end up getting a short shifter when i have some more money.

what was nissan thinking when they made the damn shift **** so hard to take off!

 

That you would probably end up breaking something that they could charge you an arm and a leg to fix because they have to order a "special part". Meanwhile they will say it is "dangerous" to drive your vehicle...so for a "small" fee you can keep your car at the dealership until the part arrives in a week or so.

 

hahahaha that's probably exactly what they were thinking! those bastards...

 

I didnt have any problems when i removed mine...

 

Damn Z-Incog, you're one lucky BLEEP, because with all that red thread lock, the rubber would just slide on the leather no matter how hard i had the wrench locked. So i moved down to the aluminum ring part and that twisted but it broke the plastic it was attached to, so the whole bottom piece broke off first, then i just said F--- IT and took off the rubber and just twisted the hell out of it. The leather was just all eaten up and still it barely twists 1/4 turn at a time, so it took forever!!! I read that the earlier Z's are having more hard of a time than the later models, in my case that was true!

 

I should take a pic of the left over parts, you guys will laugh if you see that.

 

Mine required quite a bit of elbow grease, but I was successful removing the stock shifter nonetheless. At some points, I thought that the whole rod might've been moving as each turn felt like it was moving in molasses... but all in all, one of the easier mods

 

Yeah, mine felt like that too, had to use so much force that i thought i was really screwing something up. Luckily it all came off and the new **** was a hand screw on, so over all i guess it was an "easy" install. Didn't like how the plastic threaded new **** screws on though, too easy to break, they should have used a metal threaded insert in the plastic too.

 

wow that sucks that it was that hard for you guys. mine came off with out using vice grips. i just took it off easily

 

anyone have a pic of the nismo shift ****?

 

Just do a search online...why doesn't anyone ever try to do anything for themselves? LOL

 

whoa... i'm with nismo33, mine wasn't anywhere near as hard to remove as you guys made it sound. i used vise grips on the shift lever itself just in case... but was able to just twist off the factory **** by hand.

 

The early '03 shift ***** have been harder to remove than the '04's as I've read numerous times on the board. Probably used less Loctite or something...

 

I installed a Top Speed short shifter last week and had to use vise grips under the shift boot to hold it and then use a monkey wrench to finally get it off. It tore a lot of the leather off the stock **** but Im waiting for my cf nismo shift **** to come in. The short shifter didnt take that long to install but getting the stock shift **** off took most of the time.

 

Bring it by with original packaging if you want it exchanged...

but you did over torque it... should have just turned it counter clock wize to get the logo to match up... also, threadlock is not a good idea on plastic.. .

 

and on a nismo titanium **** you should not put the nismo sticker on untill you screw the **** down anyway

 

Yeah I managed to get my stock off intact, but it felt like I broke my hand aftwards. I got the Nismo Ti on without a problem, put the shift pattern "coin" sticker on top last.

 

Thanks Jason! Yeah, when i read the instructions and it said something like self threading plastic, i thought that meant i would be torqueing it a lot by hand to cut threads in there. But it turned out you are only cutting threads in the upper part, which is like only 1/8-1/4 inch deep. When i pulled it back off to check the threads if they were okay, they came out with the ****. Anyways, maybe i'll take you up on that offer. Do you work Saturdays? I might come down and get some Nismo hatch lifts, that wing is heavier than i thought.

 

Conceyted, good point, but I was talking about the nismo logo on the side of the shift ****. It was pointing like at the right passenger airbag. It said self threading so i assumed it would be a little hard to turn, but I turned it 1/4 turn more so you can see the logo and i felt the threads go. By the way, this reminds me of the guy who bought a nismo oil cap and someone put the sticker on already and it didn't line up. The guy was pissed, but it was sort of a funny read. I think he got his money back from the other guy at the end anyway.