SSK install screw up

Yeah, anyone can do it. At least anyone else. So I was an idiot and pulled the cables out of their mounts without marking the position. I assume the best thing to do is stop, get the adjustment tool for the standard shifter, mark the cables, and then proceed with the install. Agree? Anyone know how to use that adjustment tool?

Look at the grooves in the plastic cable connectors and see if you can tell the position of the mating metal ends of the shift cables. I know how to use the tool.

It's a piece of cake but you can ONLY use it on the stock shifter. It's very easy and if you want to do it correctly that is the way to do it. However, if you have already taken apart you stock assembly and assembled the SSK into it then you are SOL on the alignment tool.

I read enough to know that it was impossible once I put the SSK in, so I stopped. Once I get the tool, do I just lock the shift in place with the tool and snap the cables back in place?

Cruel! But funny.

Very simple. Let me see if I have a pic in my iPhoto. In the meantime, it is very easy. Just snap the tool on with the cables not attached and the tool will hold the BOTH cable receivers in pace and since the cables are not flexible they just snap in. Impossible to screw this one up.

Just checked. No picture.

BTW, where are you located? I am sure somebody has one you could borrow.

Thanks, Dell. It looks like even I couldn't screw that up. I'm in Houston, but I understand that the tool is just a few dollars.

If you have another car at your disposal, then a quick drive over to the dealer to pick it up and you can be done! If they have to order one, just let me know and I will drop mine in the mail to you.

Thanks. I will be heading to the dealer this week and driving something else.

No worries, Here is how to adjust if you pull out the cable ends without marking them. Put the gearbox in neutral, put the gearshift lever in the center "neutral" position, connect the cable shafts to the spring loaded connectors and set them so that they fall into place with the gearshift lever in the center position. All the adjustment tool does is hold the lever in the center "neutral" position. You can do that by hand. The key is that the cable ends lay in the connectors so that they do not push or pull the lever off of center. Piece of cake to do.

Thanks, but having so throughly screwed up something so simple, I really don't even trust myself to hold the thing in neutral.

DCP.....I have to commend you for you great sense of humor when you are the subject of humor

I thank my lucky stars I had help with my install. This is the exact reason again why I was afraid to attempt the install. DCP...hope it all works out for you. Good luck! But once it is installed..you will love it! Guaranteed.

I don't think this should discourage anyone doing an install themselves. I just misread an instruction, and the solution is pretty simple. Besides - makes a good story.

Maybe the Porsche way is better after all....

After Tool Pants' your post, I decided to install the SSK the Porsche way. With this method, you do not remove the cables from their adjusters, and so your shifter cannot be misadjusted. It worked fine except for one problem caused by my lack of experience and poor near eyesight. I thought others might benefit from my describing the problem. The driver's side cable fitting (the one you don't take off the shifter in the B&M method) is attached with a black plastic plug. It was really hard to see while still in the car. I pulled on the cable end and it popped off the shifter. During reassembly, I put the plug back in, but after complete reassembly, the shifter was not operating correctly, so I took it all apart to discover that the left cable end had come off, and there was obviously more than the black plug originally holding it on, although I couldn't find the lost part anywhere. It did not help that I had no idea what I was looking for. Upon further reflection, it could also be that I just did not push the plug in far enough. I don't know. There were a couple of washers in the OEM SSK kit with no explanation. I figured maybe that is what at least one of them was for. Anyway, the washer fit and with the plug back in place, all seems well. We will see if I end up being stranded by the side of the road. If I were doing this again, I would not remove the left cable attachment until I removed the four bolts holding the plastic shifter assembly to the car and lifted the plastic assembly the toward the driver's side where you can see what you need to disassemble.

This does not sound right. The B&M comes with 2 metal washers. They go inside the shells that house the plastic bushings. When you adjust the set screw the screw pushes against one of these washers so that the set screw is not pushing into plastic. There really is not reason for B&M to supply 2 washers, but they do. That black plastic plug keeps the left cable connector from falling off. But under that plug is a small white bushing. That bushing fits both ways, but only one way is correct. If you install the bushing the wrong way the cable connector will fall off even after you have put the plug back in. It sounds like you took one of the B&M metal washers and put it under the plug because you lost the small white bushing that goes under the plug.

Yep. Thanks for the picture. At least now I know what I am looking for. I used the OEM kit. The bushings were not put together, and there was nothing in the TSB about how to put them together. I see now that I should take it apart and put the washers in the bushing. Now I just have to find that plastic plug. Thanks for your help.

I did not know until now you used the Porsche short shift. I assumed it was the B&M. With B&M the bushings are already put together so most people do not even know that there is a metal washer already inside each bushing. With Porsche all their parts are loose in a plastic bag. I looked at the Porsche TSB and like you said, the washers are not shown or mentioned. I wonder how many of the Porsche short shifts were put in without the washers. I knew where the washers in the plastic bag went because I had put in so many B&Ms. Good luck trying to find that small round white bushing for the cable connector that goes under the black plug. I once lost the plug in a car with black carpet and it took forever to find it. If you find the small bushing remember that it can go in both ways, but there is only 1 correct way or the cable connector will come off. The end of the bushing with the ridge is held in place by the plug. That ridge keeps the connector from coming off when you shift.

Just thought I would update this after taking everything apart again to insert the washers in the bushings. I had downloaded the B&M instructions some months ago, and did not bother to update them. When I got the Porsche kit, I assumed that the unassembled bushings were unique to the OEM kit. In looking at the current instructions, it appears that B&M now delivers the bushings unassembled. The newer B&M instructions show how to put the washers in. The TSB has yet to be updated. As to the Porsche method, it probably produces a more reliable result because there is no chance of misadjusting the cables, but unless you have a little more guidance than the TSB, you can put the driver's side cable on so that it is not attached. I did not lose the white bushing like I thought. The bushing stayed inside the cable fitting. When I reintalled, I had simply rotated the fitting 180 degrees so that when I reattached the cable I did not realize it was unsecured. A lateral tug on the cable would have told me that something was wrong, but I didn't have any reason to suspect that something might be wrong. Thanks to Tool Pants for the picture of the cable assembly and advice. I would not have been able to figure it out without his assistance.

DCP - gladyo got that worked out! Good info, Tool Pants!