Well, since my car finally came in, I could install the B&M shifter that I've had sitting around here for a couple of months.
Some notes on the install/results...
1. It seems like the installation instructions are not 'quite' in the best order. They advise you to remove shift boot, then basically the piece above the silver trim piece, then the silver trim piece. They are very difficult to remove... The next step is to pull off the sides of the center stack. However, if the sides of the center stack come off first, then removing the lower trim pieces is MUCH, MUCH easier. Plus, there's no reason to not take the sides of the stack off first. Nothing is in the way.
2. There's a step where you're supposed to cut away the retaining clips for the stock bushings. In VideoDoctor's how-to in the articles section, he reccommends using a sharp chisel to remove the clips. I could not agree to use a chisel more. It would have taken forever with the damn knife. I ran out, spent 8 bucks on a cheap 1/4" chisel, and got those clips off with little to no effort.
3. Much like others, I found my bushings wouldn't quite fit into the shifter cage either. Instead of sanding the holes bigger, I put the bushings into the freezer, heated up the plastic cage with a hair dryer (well as hot as it would get with a hair dryer), and used a nylon mallet to encourage them to fit. Worked well.
4. The whole thing took me a little over 4 hours (including running out for a chisel), but I'm a bit of a moron, and despite all of the instructions, some things you just have to learn as you go. I could do it again in 2 hours for sure.
5. I'm not sure what the actual reduction in shift throws is... (I've heard people say 37% or something) but it FEELS like half. It is very, very noticable.
6. I'm fully going to join the bandwagon on praising how awesome this thing is. I love, love, love it. Worth every penny and more. Shorter shifting, and yes, a bit notchy. I thought the original was a tad on the soft side anyway... so I'm very happy with the added notchiness.
Hey I have a question... when you put the shiter into the cage, did you retain the white cube holder for the side pivot ball? I found that my side pivot ball would not fit so I just put it into the large white arm that articulates left to right movement. However, I'm noticing I have some left to right free play because of it. - Suneet
I did NOT reinstal the white cube holder. The new shifter's ball was too big, as you said. It seemed like the new ball itself was actually sized to be equivalent to the old white cube, and seemd to fit quite nicely. I haven't noticed any side to side play yet.
I get it while I'm actually in gear, it's really only about 2 millimeters; I might not have tightened the set-nut enough. I don't remember if there was any of this free play in the stock shifter while the car was in gear, I just noticed it the other day and it has me worried because I'm not very mechanically inclined and I did a self install.
I love the B&M shifter though, it's become second nature, I have no "clunk" noise during shifting as previously reported, and it shifts smooth as butter IMHO.
- SS
That set-nut (the one on the bushings) will only affect fore and aft play. If you have play from side to side, the ball/lever combo sounds like a likely culprit.
