Anyone have a loose shift lever sitting around?

[Bry5on]

Before I start pulling the rubber boot out of my interior, then struggling to get it back in place, I thought I’d ask here first..

Background: The OEM shifter is a bit rubbery, as most I’m sure are aware. If you pull your leather shift boot up and grab the base of your shifter, so that your thumb or finger is on the thin metal shaft under the thick shaft, then wiggle your shifter, you’ll feel pretty significant motion between the two major parts of the lever. Most of that rubbery feeling comes from the motion at that joint, as far as I can tell.

Solution: I like the damped feel of some rubber, and the autosolutions setups are just a bit too ‘direct’ for me, so I thought I might be able to make the stock shifter feel firmer with a simple mod. But I need one dimension before I can do that.

The ask: Can I get some help to measure this diameter? It appears to be about 10mm, but an actual measurement is what I need.



I’m trying to make a clamp that locks both parts of the shifter together:

[Slideways]

11.80 mm for a stock shifter produced in 2002. The diameter above that is 27.75 mm if needed.

[Bry5on]

Awesome, thank you. Mine measured 28.13 so it looks like I’ll be going with 28 for the large OD.

And thanks for that super quick reply!

[JakeM346]

Nice that you already got the dimensions. But also watch out if your plastic ball is already worn. I replaced my shift assembly with the UCC with dssr and safe to say a lot of play came from the rubber and the worn out plastic ball

[Bry5on]

Nice that you already got the dimensions. But also watch out if your plastic ball is already worn. I replaced my shift assembly with the UCC with dssr and safe to say a lot of play came from the rubber and the worn out plastic ball

Thanks, my shifter has under 10k miles on it and the ball and socket still seem in good working order from what I can tell. We’ll see if these pieces make any difference..

[George Hill]

I bet I have an old shift lever kicking around... want me to send you one?

[Bry5on]

I bet I have an old shift lever kicking around... want me to send you one?

That would be awesome, especially if you have the stock PN 25-11-7-527-255. You interested in a set of these?

[George Hill]

Shoot me an email to George@HillPerformance.com and in the meantime I'll look through my pile of shift levers and see what I have.

[sapote]

But also watch out if your plastic ball is already worn. I replaced my shift assembly with the UCC with dssr and safe to say a lot of play came from the rubber and the worn out plastic ball

One main reason for the plastic ball wear is lacking the dust boot, allowing road dust/debris getting to the greased ball and destroyed it. One might want to add a selected dust boot below the ball to cover it up.

[JakeM346]

One main reason for the plastic ball wear is lacking the dust boot, allowing road dust/debris getting to the greased ball and destroyed it. One might want to add a selected dust boot below the ball to cover it up.

yes but they’ll all be worn after 150k

[timmo]

One main reason for the plastic ball wear is lacking the dust boot, allowing road dust/debris getting to the greased ball and destroyed it. One might want to add a selected dust boot below the ball to cover it up.

It shouldn't even be greased, IMO. Not sure what the actual instructions are but greasing only makes it worse - attracts all the dust and grit (as you said) which will just sand away at the bearing interface

[BMWE46M3]

Is anyone actually aware of a dust boot that can be installed to keep out the debris from under the car?

[T.J.]

I’ve driven cars with a solid shift lever but otherwise stock mechanism and it’s not extremely direct to the point I imagine autossolutions to be. Not offensive at all in my book and I have a low tolerance to added NVH. I may explore welding an E60 lever together. One of the most irritating characteristics of the stock shifter that will remain with that clamp is the ability to twist and rotate the upper section of the lever with the knob

[Bry5on]

heinzboehmer is the only car I’ve shifted with the autosolutions setup and it was definitely a bit too direct for me. He also mentioned that there is audible vibration noise at certain frequencies, which would irritate me to no end.

I’m trying to get this shifter to be a little closer to my old cayman 6-speed (or even the 911 7-speed). It’ll never get there, but removing ~1/2” (1/4”+ in each fwd/aft direction) of basically dead play with very little force input won’t hurt

[sapote]

Is anyone actually aware of a dust boot that can be installed to keep out the debris from under the car?

Maybe the steering rack boot -- after shorten -- is a good candidate.