superskaterxes
Member
- :
- Mazdaspeed 6
so ive always liked my TWM STS for my mazdaspeed 6 so it was a no brainer that i wanted one when i got my 3. so i purchased the JBarone STS and installed it the next day. after the first drive i was ready to rip the thing out because the shifts were too short for my taste and it just felt unnatural. this is when i decided that shortening the throw at the transmission was the problem because of the short radius you had to work with when actually shortening the throw.
so i moved onto my first prototype at the shifter itself. i took some quick measurements and drew up an autocad representation of the stock shifter and a plate that would attach to it. this helped me understand exactly how "shortening" the shifter worked and what i needed to do in order to make the add on plate work.
as you can see above i just bought a piece of galvanized metal from home depot and drilled a few holes in it to try different mounting locations which would increase the shortness of shifts as you moved farther away from the stock location. after installing it i thought everything was peachy until i figured out just how little room there was in the stock location.
as you can see in the picts above, the shifter linkage hits the center console which is a huge no-no if this thing is ever going to work. so it was back to the drawing board with some very precise measurements. i drew up a really nice version in autocad and came up with this design:
luckily for me i have a friend that works at a machine shop and i sent him my drawing for him to professionally CNC for me. within a weeks time he had a piece of aluminum cut out to my exact specifications. the final piece can be seen below.
i added that little hex spacer because i thought that the cable mount would interfere with the stock ball stud and not work properly. it turns out i did not need that after doing some light driving. i then installed it in the car and went for a drive.
everything seemed great as i was shifting around through all the gears while sitting in neutral. i then went to reverse out of my parking spot and could not make it there. i tried a few more times and realized the plate was hitting the underside of the little pocket on the right side of the shifter. i felt around down there and realized that the head of the black hex bolt you see above was protruding out way too far and this was causing the interference. so i sent the plate back to my buddy so that he could drill and tap a hole where the ball mount sits and then i would shave off the back half of the bolt where it stuck out past the plate. here is the final revision below.
you can see that the back side of the plate is totally flush and provides plenty of clearance. ive been running this plate for about 2 weeks and everything is perfect. i measured about a 27% shorter throw all while using the stock knob height which i love.
if anyone is interested i was going to make a few extra plates for people pretty cheap for those of you that want to try it out. all you need to do is remove your shifter out of the car like you see in the picts above and use a vice or C-clamp to drill a hole through your stock shifter using the pre-drilled holes in my plate as a guide. i will include all the hardware you need as an added bonus. send me a PM if this is something you would be interested in as i am only going to make a few more out of the material i have left.
so i moved onto my first prototype at the shifter itself. i took some quick measurements and drew up an autocad representation of the stock shifter and a plate that would attach to it. this helped me understand exactly how "shortening" the shifter worked and what i needed to do in order to make the add on plate work.
as you can see above i just bought a piece of galvanized metal from home depot and drilled a few holes in it to try different mounting locations which would increase the shortness of shifts as you moved farther away from the stock location. after installing it i thought everything was peachy until i figured out just how little room there was in the stock location.
as you can see in the picts above, the shifter linkage hits the center console which is a huge no-no if this thing is ever going to work. so it was back to the drawing board with some very precise measurements. i drew up a really nice version in autocad and came up with this design:
luckily for me i have a friend that works at a machine shop and i sent him my drawing for him to professionally CNC for me. within a weeks time he had a piece of aluminum cut out to my exact specifications. the final piece can be seen below.
i added that little hex spacer because i thought that the cable mount would interfere with the stock ball stud and not work properly. it turns out i did not need that after doing some light driving. i then installed it in the car and went for a drive.
everything seemed great as i was shifting around through all the gears while sitting in neutral. i then went to reverse out of my parking spot and could not make it there. i tried a few more times and realized the plate was hitting the underside of the little pocket on the right side of the shifter. i felt around down there and realized that the head of the black hex bolt you see above was protruding out way too far and this was causing the interference. so i sent the plate back to my buddy so that he could drill and tap a hole where the ball mount sits and then i would shave off the back half of the bolt where it stuck out past the plate. here is the final revision below.
you can see that the back side of the plate is totally flush and provides plenty of clearance. ive been running this plate for about 2 weeks and everything is perfect. i measured about a 27% shorter throw all while using the stock knob height which i love.
if anyone is interested i was going to make a few extra plates for people pretty cheap for those of you that want to try it out. all you need to do is remove your shifter out of the car like you see in the picts above and use a vice or C-clamp to drill a hole through your stock shifter using the pre-drilled holes in my plate as a guide. i will include all the hardware you need as an added bonus. send me a PM if this is something you would be interested in as i am only going to make a few more out of the material i have left.
