My UUC Evo III Issues + Fix (HUGE pictures)

[m3f_OahuMPower]

I'm not so sure of "design flaw" - in the literally thousands of UUC Evo3 shifters sold over the years, I can't think of more than one other instance of the 6-bolt design having broken bolts.



FWIW, the initial installation of these bolts calls for loc-tite (included with the kit)... without loc-tite, the normal vibration and back-and-forth motion of shifting will cause the bolts to back out, be over-extended, and break. The other instance I did see was clearly installed without loc-tite.



But none of that matters - as with anything UUC-related, we do ask that you call us first (nobody here on the message board is fixing your problem! )... and we would take care of you with the LIFETIME WARRANTY on this part.



Please call me directly at your earliest convenience to get this corrected. Our number is 678-679-5360.

just cuz you dont know about them Rob, doesnt mean its NOT a problem.



One of mine sheered off, Eric had this happen, and I can think of 5 others just in my local area that have had problems with this fricken small a$$ allen bolts sheering off in this design flaw. Yes, I said it. The Evo 3 with the small allen bolts and the way it is arranged is a design flaw. If the bolts were bigger, and able to actually stay torque'd to spec, you would be fine. (example: akg's design, which I actually think you copied, but that's a whole different story) They use a much larger allen socket bolt, and its able to be torqued to spec with some red loctite and guess what, they dont sheer, and they dont loosen up.



I've consistently had to retighten those damn bolts to keep them tight, and keep the slop out of the shifter. I owned my Evo3 for almost 3.5 years, and I think I had to retighten those bolts every 6 months or less.



I have since gone to the MUCH MUCH MUCH better AKG design, and havent looked back.

...... but having these bolts "disappear" was a bit of a wakeup call and IMHO, an inherent design flaw...

EXACTLY

[m3f_epj3]

I'm not so sure of "design flaw" - in the literally thousands of UUC Evo3 shifters sold over the years, I can't think of more than one other instance of the 6-bolt design having broken bolts.


FWIW, the initial installation of these bolts calls for loc-tite (included with the kit)... without loc-tite, the normal vibration and back-and-forth motion of shifting will cause the bolts to back out, be over-extended, and break. The other instance I did see was clearly installed without loc-tite.


But none of that matters - as with anything UUC-related, we do ask that you call us first (nobody here on the message board is fixing your problem! )... and we would take care of you with the LIFETIME WARRANTY on this part.


Please call me directly at your earliest convenience to get this corrected. Our number is 678-679-5360.

My shifter was installed correctly. I have been reading English print my entire life and working on cars long enough to follow directions and make a good judgement. My mechanical aptitude is not the flaw here. This may be YOUR second time hearing of this problem, but obviously other members have seen this. If you see what I did to fix the shifter, it should imply loctite was not the issue


Is it a design flaw, or bad luck? I don't know. It's kind of like the million monkeys on a typewriter thing. So eventually one out of so many will be unusual. For what its worth, the bolts are sheering off from fatigue, NOT backing out from a lack of loctite. Look at the fifth and sixth picture in my original post under "With all 6 bolts are torqued, add in vibration and forces from shifting, over time this is bound to happen." You're an engineer (i believe?), it's quite easy to see why there may be a problem.


May be that it's caused from irregularities in the casting of the factory shift carrier. Regardless - not many of us have time to deal with warranty issues because it means keeping our daily drivers out of commission.


This is not at all to say that I am unhappy with the shifter - I do believe there should be a more substantive method used to secure the shift cup to the carrier. I won't ignore what you have done for the BMW community - UUC is a "household name." But when it comes down to it, blaming it on the "wrenchers" is probably not the right thing to do all the time. I know - it's hard, al a lot of people are idiots...

[m3f_cmcon98]

One cheap way to accomplish the same thing for next to nothing is to cut the shifter cup off an old shifter bracket and TIG weld it to the top of the shifter cup on the shifter bracket you're going to use, effectively raising the pivot point. Then use a factory BMW plastic ball socket and a factory BMW shift lever with a longer lower lever (the section that extends from the ball pivot down to the lug where the shift rod attaches). There's a diagram online somewhere (Rod Stygar, I think) of all the various BMW shift levers and their respective lengths. This will reduce the throws from the original M3 shift lever (due to the longer lower section), but retain similar geometry by raising the pivot point so that the shift rod is still pretty much pushing/pulling straight in line with the selector rod on the back of the tranny.



It's kinda crude, but dirt cheap and effective, plus more durable (100% BMW parts except the modified shifter bracket) than the zillion-dollar UUC silliness.

[m3f_OahuMPower]

no zillion dollar AKG silliness here (it is expensive though)

[m3f_WK446]

OahuMPower: The AKG shifter you have must bolt directly to the transmission tunnel, correct?

[m3f_OahuMPower]

OahuMPower: The AKG shifter you have must bolt directly to the transmission tunnel, correct?

correct..

[m3f_bigfeller]

correct..

Pics or ban.