I received both of the Kartboy products yesterday, but only installed the bushings.
The installation was pretty simple, but I did have a couple of small problems. First, there is some orange material applied to the end of the bolt that holds the bushing assembly in place. It seems to be something that prevents the nut from falling off accidentally. The problem I had was that the whole bolt started to unscrew from the block when the nut got to the orange stuff.
My advice is to push up on the bushing arm to prevent the bolt from spinning and using a kind of jerky motion to loosen the nut the rest of the way.
Also, I used a deep socket and an extension and went at it from over the exhaust pipe. It seemed easier for me to get enough torque to loosen it that way.
The other thing was that the arm is a bit tricky to get off the bolt and when it comes free, it kind of flies off of there. For me, this meant slamming my arm into some other part of the car and hurting myself. So be careful.
Otherwise, the job is very easy. It took about 30 minutes for me to do it all.
Results:
I found that the gear lever engages in a much more positive fashion. It feels more connected to the transmission and has lost most of the spongy-rubbery feel it used to have. Also, I have not had any grinding since they were installed. I think that there may be some gear noise I can hear now that I couldn't before, but it is very minimal and I actually like it - so no complaint from me.
I haven't decided if I am going to install the short throw lever yet. The stock MP3 knob does not fit on it and I do want to keep a stock appearance. The bushings have helped with the shifting feel quite a bit and I don't know if I really need a shorter throw. I'll decide in the next day or two.
The installation was pretty simple, but I did have a couple of small problems. First, there is some orange material applied to the end of the bolt that holds the bushing assembly in place. It seems to be something that prevents the nut from falling off accidentally. The problem I had was that the whole bolt started to unscrew from the block when the nut got to the orange stuff.
My advice is to push up on the bushing arm to prevent the bolt from spinning and using a kind of jerky motion to loosen the nut the rest of the way.
Also, I used a deep socket and an extension and went at it from over the exhaust pipe. It seemed easier for me to get enough torque to loosen it that way.
The other thing was that the arm is a bit tricky to get off the bolt and when it comes free, it kind of flies off of there. For me, this meant slamming my arm into some other part of the car and hurting myself. So be careful.
Otherwise, the job is very easy. It took about 30 minutes for me to do it all.
Results:
I found that the gear lever engages in a much more positive fashion. It feels more connected to the transmission and has lost most of the spongy-rubbery feel it used to have. Also, I have not had any grinding since they were installed. I think that there may be some gear noise I can hear now that I couldn't before, but it is very minimal and I actually like it - so no complaint from me.
I haven't decided if I am going to install the short throw lever yet. The stock MP3 knob does not fit on it and I do want to keep a stock appearance. The bushings have helped with the shifting feel quite a bit and I don't know if I really need a shorter throw. I'll decide in the next day or two.
